^;^y^ 



Pioneer Spaniards 

in 

North America 



BOOKS BY 

William Henry Johnson 

The World's Discoverers 

Pioneer Spaniards in North 
America 




AMERIGO VESPUCCI 



Pioneer Spaniards 

in 

North America 



By 



William Henry Johnson 

Author of "The World's DiWoverers," etc 



With Numerous Illustrations 



Boston 

Little, Brown, and Company 

1903 



The LiSRA'^^ '^^ 



T»»c Copis* Rec* v^- ( 

OCT. 24 1903 

C«P)i.fcn\ e.n;:> 

CL*.SS X W - ' > 

COPY B. 



Copxrighty fgoj. 
By Little, Brown, and Company, 



.^ili rigits reser^-eJ 
Published Ctoher, 19c 3 



Ujm"£3:StTT PSESS • JOHN WILSON 
AND SOX - CAMBRIDGE, r. S- A. 



PREFACE 

IX offering to the public this series of his- 
torical sketches, it has seemed best to omit, 
in general, formal references to authorities. 
Instead, there is appended a list of some ot 
the books that the author has found useful, and 
that he can recommend. The following works 
may be mentioned as forming the basis of a large 
part of the text. 

Mr. F. S. Dellenbaugh's " The North Ameri- 
cans of Yesterday " is an inyaluable storehouse 
of information on the arts, customs, religion, and 
social life of the aboriginal Americans. Dr. Justin 
Winsor's " Xarratiye and Critical History " is too 
well known for its encyclopaedic character to need 
commendation. Dr. John Fiske's " The Dis- 
coyery of America" outlines the story ot the 
Conquest of Mexico in that lamented author's 
inimitable manner, and is particularly valuable in 
pointing out the close parallelism between the 



PREFACE 

respective leagues of the Iroquois and the Aztecs. 
He also traces admirably the evolution of the 
name " America." Mr. George Parker Winship's 
brilliant monograph on "Coronado's Expedition," 
published in the fourteenth volume of the Reports 
of the Bureau of Ethnology, is a fine example of 
what thorough scholarship and patient research 
can accomplish with scanty materials in illumining 
a subject. With the aid of his translations from 
the original chronicles and his beautiful plates 
and maps we are able to follow the route of the 
Conquistadors with reasonable certainty ; and we 
get a vivid picture of that romantic enterprise. 
The reader who wishes to know something of 
the stirring history of our Southwest will find it 
sketched with thrilling interest and with genuine 
sympathy by Mr. C. F. Lummis in his " Spanish 
Pioneers." 

To speak of the Conquest of Mexico and omit 
a reference to Mr. Prescott's classic work would 
be unpardonable. Equally inexcusable would it 
be to commend it without a word of caution. 
One cannot ignore the fact that he wrote before 
the era of first-hand anthropological study, so 
distinctive of our time, and of which Mr. Lewis 
H. Morgan's article, "Montezuma's Dinner" 

vi 



PREFACE 

{North American Review^ April, 1876), which the 
reader should by all means read, may be regarded 
as a striking example. However discriminatingly 
he sifted the accounts of Spanish chroniclers and 
noted glaring discrepancies or manifest exaggera- 
tions, the data were as yet wholly lacking for 
establishing an independent point of view. He 
did the best that was possible in the then existing 
state of knowledge, and produced a monumental 
work that remains an ornament of our literature. 
That it is pervaded with an atmosphere of roman- 
ticism quite unhistorical was an inevitable result 
of the limitations of the time. 

For the study of the aboriginal races, Mr. E. 
J. Payne's " History of the New World called 
America" is an incomparable work. It opens up 
a dim antiquity, and throws a flood of light, drawn 
from numerous quarters, upon the peopling of 
this continent, the migratory movements of abo- 
riginal tribes, their respective degrees of social 
development, and the progress they had made be- 
fore the advent of Europeans. From this source 
the matter contained in the Appendix of this 
volume is almost wholly derived. 

The author makes grateful acknowledgment to 
Mr. Frederick S. Dellenbaugh for his generosity 

vii 



PREFACE 

in giving the use of his admirably selected illus- 
trations ; to Mr. W. C. Lane, Librarian of 
Harvard University, and Mr. Otto Fleischner, 
of the Boston Public Library, for valued cour- 
tesies ; and to the staff of the Boston Athenaeum 
and that of the Cambridge Public Library for 
unvarying helpfulness. 

Cambridge, Mass., July 12, 1903. 



vni 



BOOKS OF REFERENCE 

Washington living's "The Companions of Cohiin- 
bus." 

Theodore living's "The Conquest of Florida." 
Miss Grace Kintj's " De Soto and his Men in the 
Land of Florida." 

Mr. W. H. Prescott's "The Conquest of Mexico." 
Sir Arthur Helps's "The Spanish Conquest in Amer- 
ica." 

Sir Clements R. Markham's " Americus Vespucius." 
Dr. Justin Winsor's " Narrative and Critical History." 
Dr. John Fiske's "The Discovery of America." 
Dr. D. G. Brinton's " Races and Peoples." 
Col. T. W. Higginson's " American Explorers." 
Mr. George P. Winship's " The Expedition of Fran- 
cisco Vasquez de Coronado " (in Fourteenth Report of 
the United States Bureau of Ethnology). 
Mr. C. F. Lumniis's " Spanish Pioneers." 
Mr. E. J. Payne's " History of the New World called 
America." 

Mr. F. S. Dellenbaugh's " The North Americans of 
Yesterday." 



IX 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I- Alonzo de Ojeda's Voyages and Discoveries . i 

II. Americus Vespucius — Our Country's Name . 21 

III. Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Discoverer of the 

Pacific 47 

IV. Juan Ponce de Leon, Discoverer of Florida . 75 
V. The Native Americans. Las Casas, the In- 
dians' Friend 89 

VI. Hernando Cortes invades Mexico .... 127 

VII. Cortes takes the City of Mexico . . . . 157 

VIII. Panfilo de Narvaez and Cabeza de Vaca . 193 
IX. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado explores the 

Southwest of the United States . . . 217 
X. Hernando de Soto sets forth to conquer the 

Kingdom of El Dorado 255 

XI. Death of Hernando de Soto 287 

XII. The Second Conquest of New Mexico . . 301 

APPENDIX 

I. The Story of Ancient Mexico 327 

II. The Social and Religious Life of Ancient 

Mexico 347 

INDEX 369 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Amerigo Vespucci Frontispiece 

Canovai. Elogio d'' Amerigo Vespucci Pa?e 

Champlain's Monster 4 

Champlain. Narrati-je of a Voyage to the West 
Indies and Mexico 

Champlain's Drawing of Pearl Fishery .... 8 

From the same 

Facsimile of Frontispiece to the First Edition of 

Vespucci's Letters 27 

Varnhagen. Amerigo Vespucci 

Indians Bringing Gifts to Vespucci 33 

Benzoni. De Gedeiikzuaardige West Indise Voy- 
agien Gedaan door Christofel Columbus 

The First Map on which the name America is 

APPLIED TO the WhOLE WeSTERN CONTINENT . 4O— 4 1 

NoRDENSKjOLD. Facsimile Atlas. G. Mercator's 
double cordiform map of the world of l^jS. 
Copperprint, Rome, about I^6o 

Map OF Darien 52 

De Laet. Descriptionis Indiae Occidentalis 

Indians Killed by Dogs 58 

Benzoni. De Gedenkwaardige West Indise Voy- 
agien Gedaan door Christofel Columbus 

xiii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 
Balboa Taking Possession of the Pacific .... 60 
Herrera. Historia de las Indias 

Ponce de Leon Fighting the Natives of Florida . 82 

From the same 

St. Helena, the Scene of Ayllon's Treachery . . 85 
DeRry's Peregrationes 

Rushing Eagle, a Mandan Chief 93 

Dellenbaugh. The North Americans of Tester- 
day 

Indians Punished For Not Going to Church . . 112 
Champlain. Narrative of a Voyage to the West 
Indies and Mexico 

Champlain's Picture of Indians Burned . . . . 114. 

From the same 

Bartolome de Las Casas 119 

From an ohi engraving 

Juan de Grijalva 130 

Herrera. Historia de las Indias 

Hernando Cortes 135 

From the same 

Cannon of Cortes' Time 145 

EssENWEiN. Kulturhistorische Bilder- Atlas 

Plan of the City of Vera Cruz 149 

Oexmelin. Hiitoire des Avanturiers Flibustiers 

A Page from an Aztec Book 161 

Dellenbaugh. The North Americans of Tester - 
day 

The City of Mexico under the Conquerors . . 169 
Montanus. De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Montezuma 173 

From an eld C7igraviug 



Don Pedro de Alvarado 178 

Herrera. Historia de las Indias 

The Earliest Known Picture of a Buffalo . . . 212 
De Laet. Descriptiunis Indiae Occidentalis 

Pueblo of Hopi 225 

James. Indians of the Painted Desert Region 

Ruins of Casa Grande 233 

Dellenbaugh. The North Americans of 2'ester- 
day 

The Colorado River and the Grand CanyOxN . . 239 
James. In and Around the Grand Canyon 

Hernando de Soto 259 

Herrera. Historia de las Indias 

Map of De Soto's Route 264-265 ^ 

Gravier. D'ecouvertes et Etablissements de Cav- 
elier De La Salle de Rouen, dans V A>nerique 
du Nord 

Copper and Stone Axes taken from Ancient 

Mounds 273 

Domenech. Seven Tears' Residence in the Deserts 
of North Ameriea 

Indian Burial Mounds 295 

From the same 

A Hopi Snake Dance 309 

James. Indians of the Painted Desert Region 

Specimens of Carving from the Northwest Coast . 329 
Dellenbaugh. The North Americans of Tester- 
day 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Pt2ge 
A Page from a Maya Book 333 

From the same 

The Famous Dighton Rock 337 

From the same 

Map of the Aztec Territory, with Cortes' Route 339 

Indians Killing a Bison. An Indian Drawing . . 348 

From the same 

Terra Cotta from Chiriqui, Central America . 355 

From the same 

Aztec Symbol for Montezuma 357 

From the same 



chapter I 



ALONZO DE OJEDA'S VOYAGES AND 
DISCOVERIES 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 
IN NORTH AMERICA 

Chapter I 

ALONZO DE OJEDA'S VOYAGES AND 
DISCOVERIES 

Ojeda's Interesting but Unprofitable Voyage. — He leads an 
Expedition to Darien. — His Thrilling Adventures with a 
Pirate Crew. — A Terrible Tramp through Cuba. — Fate 
of the Pirates. — Ojeda's Death. 



H 



OW much the world owes to its 
dreamers ! Columbus, brooding over 
the old dream of Cathay, with its 
fabled splendors, steered westward 
over the Sea of Darkness, and hit upon a world. 
The same spirit animated his successors for several 
generations and led to the most important results. 
Fanciful tales had as much to do with inspiring 
the first great explorations as the stories of Marco 
Polo and Maundeville with inciting to the first 
discoveries. Instead of Cipango and the land of 
Ophir, the Grand Khan and Prester John, it was 

3 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 



now the Fountain of Youth, Cibola, and El 
Dorado. Not one of the early seekers found 
what he sought or achieved what he hoped. Yet 
each accomplished something towards bringing the 
unknown world within the ken of civilized man. 



It was a wonder-lov 
ing was too marvel 
Land and sea 



ing age. Noth- 
to be believed, 
forest teemed 










champlain's monster 









with prodigies. Champlain describes from hear- 
say a monster, said to exist in Mexico, having 
the wings of a bat, the head of an eagle, and the 
tail of an alligator. Happily, he re-assures his 
hearers by adding that it is harmless, as indeed 
it is, for the creature so metamorphosed is none 
other than the inoffensive iguana, a huge lizard, 
much relished by the natives. 

4 



OJEDA'S VOYAGES 

The men of that day had no power of reason- 
ing from what they actually found to what they 
might reasonably expect to find. Invaders stag- 
gering through stifling swamps and squalid abodes 
of savages, expected to see suddenly rise before 
them the shining battlements of a royal city, with 
gilded roofs and gateways encrusted with gems. 

This credulous, feverish spirit of the pioneers 
was the reason why, when the sixteenth century 
closed, more than a hundred years after America 
had been discovered, Europeans had made scarcely 
a lodgment in all the territory between Mexico 
and the North Pole. Of permanent settlements 
France had not succeeded in establishing a single 
one ; England, not one ; and Spain, with all her 
splendid opportunity, had only St. Augustine, 
Santa Fe, and a few missions on the Gila and 
Rio Grande. Why was this ? Undoubtedly 
because the New World was looked upon rather 
as a wonder-land, a paradise of adventurers, than 
as a country that should furnish homes for indus- 
trious settlers. Men came to America, not to 
establish themselves, with their families, to till 
the soil, and to live by its produce, but to get 
rich quickly. 

The achievements of Columbus brought into 

5 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

the field a host of adventurers eager to get a 
share of the treasures of the New World. After 
his third voyage, in 1498, in which he first 
reached the continent of America and discovered 
the mouth of the Orinoco, his description of the 
neighboring coast of Paria as abounding in gold 
and silver and pearls fired the imagination ot 
many, and a number of expeditions thither were 
soon launched. 

Quite a notable figure among these adventurers 
was Alonzo de Ojeda. While he was serving 
with Columbus in his second voyage and in the 
government of Hispaniola, he had distinguished 
himself by taking prisoner the fierce Indian chief- 
tain Caonabo.^ He was not with Columbus on 
his third voyage. But he no sooner heard of his 
discovery of the coast of Paria, than he deter- 
mined to lead an expedition on his own account 
to the region that promised so rich a reward. 
King Ferdinand was quite willing that such ex- 
plorations should be made by adventurers at 
their own expense, though his granting them 
leave was in violation of his express agreement 
with Columbus ; and he readily issued a commis- 
sion to Ojeda. The latter had no money, but 

1 See "The World's Discoverers," p. 66. 



OJEDA'S VOYAGES 

with his reputation for slcill and daring, he had 
no trouble in finding rich merchants who were 
willing to advance the needed sum. With him- 
self he associated Juan de la Cosa, who had been 
a chief pilot under Columbus, and was one ot the 
most scientific navigators of his time. He was 
a veteran of the seas and a brave man. Another 
associate of Ojeda was the man whose name has 
become immortalized by being attached to the 
New World, Amerigo Vespucci. 

The expedition sailed in May, 1499, reached 
the coast of South America, turned north, passed 
the mouth of the Orinoco, made its way through 
the dangerous strait between the island of Trin- 
idad and the mainland which Columbus had 
called Boca del Drago (Dragon's Mouth), and 
coasted the shores of Paria, stopping at various 
places and noting the ways of the inhabitants, 
whom Vespucci describes very minutely. Then 
it touched at the island of Margarita (Pearl), since 
renowned for its pearl-fishery. At a point on the 
mainland the natives gained the friendship of the 
Spaniards by gifts of fish, venison, and cassava- 
bread, and then implored their assistance against 
the fierce warriors of a distant island, who, they 
said, were wont to come and carry off their people, 

7 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

to eat them at their leisure. This invitation 
exactly suited the adventurous nature of Ojeda. 
He at once took on board some guides, sailed 
seven days, and came to the island of the canni- 
bals. The beach was covered with gaudily 
painted and befeathered warriors, ready to de- 




CHAMPLAIN S DRAWING OF PEARL FISHERY 

fend their native soil. The ships anchored and 
sent several armed boats to the attack. 

They were met with a cloud of arrows. But 
when they fired their pedreroes (boat-howitzers 
that discharged stones), the noise and smoke and 
deadly missiles caused a panic among the Caribs, 
and they fled. They rallied, however, in the 
woods and fought the pursuing Spaniards with 
desperate valor. The next day the fighting was 
resumed. The Caribs stood their ground bravely, 

8 



OJEDA'S VOYAGES 

and, with their naked bodies and wooden weapons, 
engaged hand to hand the enemy sheathed in 
steel. Of course, they were slaughtered. Then 
the Spaniards plundered and burned their dwel- 
lings, returned to their ships with a number of 
prisoners, to be sold as slaves, and sailed away, 
having lost only one man killed and twenty-one 
wounded. This was very interesting, no doubt, 
but not exactly the kind of thing for which the 
merchants of Seville had put out their money. 
They expected a return in pearls, not in stories of 
delightful fighting, and thereafter they were not 
keen to invest in the fiery Ojeda's ventures. 

The island of Cura9ao, which the adventurers 
next visited, was inhabited, according to Ves- 
pucci's account, by a race of giants. But subse- 
quent travelers found there people of ordinary 
size; and we may surmise that some beverage 
like that potent cordial for which the island is 
now famous caused him to see them double. 

The next point of interest visited was an Indian 
village on the mainland, consisting of large houses, 
bell-shaped, reared on piles driven into the 
bottom of a shallow lagoon. Its appearance re- 
called, in a rude way, the beautiful city of Venice, 
reposing on its canals, and Ojeda gave it the 

9 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

name of Venezuela (Little Venice), which has 
since been extended to include all the neighboring 
country. The inhabitants at first received the 
Spaniards kindly, swarming around the ships, 
some in their canoes, others swimming, for they 
seemed to be, like frogs, as much at home in the 
water as on land. Suddenly, however, they 
began an attack. But Ojeda quickly manned his 
boats charged the fleet of canoes, sank several, and 
dispersed the rest, with the loss of many killed, 
while the Spaniards had only five men wounded. 

Sailing further along the coast, the voyagers 
came to a region where the natives lavished hos- 
pitality on them, invited them into the interior, 
led them from town to town, and performed 
their national games and dances in their honor, 
in fact idolized their visitors, as beings of sup- 
posed supernatural origin. These delightful ex- 
periences, however, did not produce any treasure; 
and Ojeda determined to see what he could pick 
up elsewhere. He therefore sailed to Hispaniola. 
But Columbus was governor there and ordered 
the intruder off. The latter then visited other 
islands, carried off numbers of the natives, and 
reached Spain, after an absence of thirteen months, 
with his ships crowded with captives. These 

lO 



OJEDA'S VOYAGES 

were sold as slaves ; but the returns were so 
meagre that, after paying expenses, there were 
but five hundred ducats to be divided between 
fifty-five adventurers. About the same time 
another expedition, which had avoided fighting, 
returned to Spain with an enormously valuable 
treasure in pearls. 

It will be remembered that Columbus in his 
last voyage explored a part of the coast of Central 
America called Veragua, which he found very 
rich in gold.^ Indeed he fancied that King Solo- 
mon brought thence the gold which he used in 
building the temple at Jerusalem. King Fer- 
dinand's greedy soul became filled with the idea 
of colonizing that rich coast and placing its gov- 
ernment under a capable man. Columbus had 
now been dead three years. Bishop Fonseca put 
forward his favorite, the daring Ojeda, for the 
position. Another candidate was Diego de Ni- 
cuesa, an elegant and accomplished cavalier, who 
had plenty of money and could easily equip 
an expedition. Ferdinand decided to appoint 
both. Ojeda was to have the eastern half, in- 
cluding the coast of what is now called Colombia, 
and a part of the Isthmus. Nicuesa's was to be 

1 See "The "World's Discoverers,'" P'ige 83. 
I I 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

the western territory, extending as tar as Cape 
Gracias a Dios. Again the veteran pilot Juan de 
la Cosa became the partner of Ojeda and put all 
his money into the enterprise. As to Ojeda, he 
had none. Along \yith his reckless daring, he 
had a spendthrift disposition Nyhich would always 
haye kept him poor. So these two sailed with a 
slender armament. Shortly afterwards Nicuesa 
put to sea with a splendid fleet, magnificently 
equipped. 

The two crovernors were rivals, and when they 
reached San Domino;© their jealousy broke out in 
violent disputes about their jurisdiction. Ojeda, 
in his fire-eatinff fashion, proposed to settle the 
matter hv a duel. But this would have been too 
absurd, even for Spaniards of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, and his loval friend, Juan de la Cosa, 
succeeded in calming him. Ojeda's dashing 
manners, however, attracted an ambitious lawyer, 
named Enciso, who had made money by his 
practice amono; the quarrelsome cavaliers in San 
Domingo. He airreed to fit out a vessel and 
join Ojeda, who, in return, promised to appoint 
him Chief Justice of his province. 

Then Ojeda sailed away tor his government, 
lea\"ing Enciso to follow as soon as possible. 

12 



OJEDA'S VOYAGES 

Some time after Ojeda's departure Xicuesa 
sailed with his splendid armament. 

Now begins a series of adventures so abound- 
ing in strange vicissitudes, in deadly perils, in 
desperate straits, in cruel suffering, that this true 
story of the terrible sacrifices by which the Span- 
iards finally established themselves on the Isth- 
mus of Panama reads more like lurid fiction 
than sober history. 

Ojeda, true to his nature, as quickly as pos- 
sible involved himself in fighting. When he 
reached the site of Cartagena, in what is now 
called Colombia, contrary to the advice of the 
veteran Cosa, who had been there before and 
knew the desperate valor of the natives and the 
deadliness of their poisoned arrows, he attacked 
a large body of them. After a sharp fight, he 
routed them. Recklessly following the fugitives 
miles into the interior, he came, at dusk, to a 
village from which the inhabitants had fled. 
The Spaniards dispersed themselves among the 
houses, embowered in the deep woods, rov- 
ing everywhere in search of booty. Suddenly 
swarms of savages rushed upon them, cutting 
off the little groups of invaders from each other. 
Ojeda took his stand with a few men in a small 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

enclosure. His companions were all killed by 
his side. His stanch friend, Juan de la Cosa, 
faithful to the last, tried to come to his rescue 
with a handful of men. All were killed but 
one, and the veteran himself fell, sending with 
his last breath a message of devotion to his 
reckless commander. Only the one man who 
bore '.t, and carried the tidings to the fleet, was 
known to have escaped from the slaughter. 
Ojeda himself was among the missing. 

Some days afterwards, his remaining followers, 
exploring the coast and firing guns, in the desper- 
ate hope of finding some who might have fled 
the carnage, discovered the fiery adventurer lying 
on the roots of a mangrove by the water-side, so 
wasted with hunger and fatigue that he could not 
speak. He had escaped in the darkness from the 
fatal village and made his way to the sea-shore. 

Shortly afterwards the squadron of Nicuesa 
came in sight. The ruined and fallen Ojeda 
shrank from meeting his powerful rival. But the 
latter generously forgave his former enmity, res- 
cued him in his distress, and welcomed him on 
his ship. 

So soon as Ojeda was able to march, the two 
led a force of four hundred men, with several 

H 



OJEDA'S VOYAGES 

horses, to take vengeance on the brave villagers- 
They approached in the dead of night and sur- 
rounded the place. There was not a sound but 
the shrill screeching of parrots in the tree-tops. 
But this did not arouse the sleeping natives. 
Suddenly they were horribly awakened by the 
war-cry of Spain, — "Santiago!" and the dark- 
ness was illumined by flames bursting from their 
cabins. In a moment the place was filled with 
shrieking women, who, seeing the horses, the first 
that had been landed on this coast, careering 
between the blazing houses, mistook them and 
their riders for some new species of fearful mon- 
sters. The carnage was indescribable. The 
Spaniards gave no quarter and glutted their 
savage vengeance. 

After this Nicuesa sailed for Veragua ; and 
Ojeda gave up the idea of settling in a region 
where he had won little gold, and which was so 
valiantly defended. He sailed to a point on the 
eastern shore of the Gulf of Darien, which he 
fortified- and called San Sebastian. Here the 
Spaniards soon fell into desperate straits. Dis- 
ease, hunger, and the implacable hostility of the 
natives, with their deadly poisoned arrows, made 
frightful inroads into their numbers. 

15 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Imagine their surprise when a strange sail one 
day appeared in the offing. Who could this be, 
on that lonely coast? It proved to be a reckless 
scoundrel named Talavera, with a crew of seventy 
select cut-throats. These villains, the scum of 
the vagabonds who had drifted to San Domingo, 
had heard such accounts of the abundance of 
gold in this new region that they had determined 
to come to it. The fact of not having ship or 
money did not long stand in their way. They 
went stealthilv to a point where a vessel was taking 
on stores, surprised and seized it, and embarked 
to join Ojeda. They knew nothing of navigation, 
but they managed to reach him. He paid them 
in gold for the supplies they brought, and thus 
his followers were saved from starvation. But 
Enciso did not appear, and the spirit of discon- 
tent was growing. Ojeda saw that something 
must be done. He offiered to go himself to San 
Domingo for more men and supplies, if his fol- 
lowers would promise to remain orderly under 
his lieutenant, the afterwards renowned conqueror 
of Peru, Francisco Pizarro. They agreed. At 
the same time Talavera and his pirate crew, dis- 
appointed of finding abundant wealth at San 
Sebastian, resolved to return to San Domingo at 

i6 



OJEDA'S VOYAGES 

all hazards. They were willing to take Ojeda, 
no doubt expecting that his influence would be 
strong enough to save their necks. 

Scarcely were they at sea when Ojeda claimed 
to command the vessel. The pirate captain had 
no idea of surrendering the control. A violent 
quarrel ensued. The whole crew backed their 
leader, overpowered Ojeda, and laid him by the 
heels to cool his wrath in irons. In vain he 
cursed them for cowards and curs and offered to 
fight the whole of them, if they would give him 
his sword and a clear deck and come on two at 
a time. They merely jeered at his rage. 

But his turn came soon. The vessel ran into 
a gale. Talavera and his cut-throats knew little 
of navigation and less of those seas, whereas 
Ojeda was a skilful sailor and had had experience 
of those waters. They made a truce with him, 
took off his irons, and put him in charge of the 
vessel as pilot. He did the best that he could, 
but that was only to beach the shattered craft on 
the southern coast of Cuba. Now the outlaws 
were in a desperate plight indeed, stranded on a 
wild shore, hundreds of miles from any habita- 
tion of white men. Their only hope lay in 
tramping to the eastern end of the island and 

17 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

seeking some means of crossing to Hispaniola 
(San Domingo). Accordingly they set out. 

Cuba was still uncolonized, and besides its 
native population, its woods were full of Indians 
who had fled from the cruelty of their conquerors 
on Hispaniola. These combined and frequently 
attacked the castaways. Ojeda and his men 
easily repulsed them, but decided to keep close 
to the sea, that they might be less exposed to 
such assaults. Following this course, they be- 
came involved in an endless stretch of salt marshes. 
Day after day they struggled on, sometimes al- 
most waist-deep in mire, surrounded by water, 
yet consumed with thirst. For food they had 
only a little cassava-bread and raw roots. At 
night they climbed upon the twisted roots of the 
mangrove-trees which grow in the water, and 
there made their bed. Some were drowned in 
swimming across rivers and- inlets ; others were 
smothered in the mire. Altogether, their situa- 
tion was desperate. They spent thirty days in 
the interminable morass and lost half of their 
number. 

At last, when some of the survivors in utter 
despair laid themselves down to die, Ojeda and 
a few of the stronger, still struggling forward, 

i8 



OJEDA'S VOYAGES 

came to dry land and found a path that led to 
an Indian village. The native chief, seeing their 
exhausted condition, cared for them tenderly, sent 
a large party with provisions to relieve and bring 
in on their shoulders the stragglers in the marsh, 
and entertained all the strangers with the kindest 
hospitality until they were able to travel. But 
this lesson of humanity from heathen savages was 
wasted on these Christian Spaniards. 

When Ojeda's party were restored to health 
they continued their journey and finally reached 
Jamaica, where there was a Spanish settlement. 
After a time Ojeda set sail for San Domingo, but 
his piratical companions preferred remaining in 
Jamaica to facing the risk of a halter. 

Diego Columbus (the Admiral's son) was 
now Governor of Hispaniola.^ So soon as he 
heard the story of Ojeda's adventures, he sent a 
strong force of soldiers to arrest the villains in 
Jamaica. They were brought to San Domingo 
in chains, and Talavera was hanged, with a 
number of his accomplices. " Never," says 
Washington Irving, " had vagabonds traveled 
farther or toiled harder to arrive at the gallows." 

Ojeda's end was less tragic, but scarcely more 

^ See " The World's Discoverers," page 92. 
19 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

cheerful. In San Domingo he learned that his 
partner, Enciso, had long since sailed for the 
colony in Panama. He tried hard to raise an 
expedition to follow him, but he had no money, 
and nobody would lend him any. He had ac- 
quired the reputation of a man who always rushed 
into danger and got only fighting where more 
prudent men got gold. He was never able to 
obtain another command, and sank into dire 
poverty. His proud spirit was broken by neglect, 
and the aspiring cavalier who once led the " Ocean 
Chivalry " died so poor that he left not enough 
money to pay for his burial. 



20 



chapter II 

AMERICUS VESPUCIUS — OUR COUNTRY'S NAME 



chapter II 

AMERICUS VESPUCIUS — OUR COUNTRY'S NAME 

Controversy about Vespucius. — What is known about him. — 
What he claimed to have done. — How the name America 
originated. — First applied to Brazil. — Extended to all 
South America. — Then to the whole continent. 

THE man whose name our country bears 
deserves at least a passing notice. 
Though this work seeks to avoid con- 
troversy and to state only accepted 
facts, in this case the importance of the subject 
may excuse us for departing from this rule. It 
surely is worth our while to learn something 
about the man whose name is borne by the 
New World, and to try to determine how much 
claim he really has to be enrolled among great 
discoverers. 

I think we shall find that Amerigo Vespucci, 
as was his name, has been treated by the great 
majority of writers with some degree of injustice. 
Because an honor was thrust upon him which he 
never sought, they have looked upon him as a 

23 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

cunning impostor, who craftily planned to reap 
honors which belonged to another. In the view 
of these writers, he was a mere landsman, " a 
beef contractor," who had picked up a smatter- 
ing of nautical knowledge and in a very sub- 
ordinate capacity made some voyages, upon 
which he based the most extravagant claims of 
great discoveries, and, these claims being credited 
by people in Europe who knew no better, was 
hailed as an illustrious man whose name was 
worthy to be borne by the New World. In 
the view of another and far smaller number of 
writers, Vespucius was a man of very great 
ability, who made remarkable voyages, achieved 
brilliant discoveries, and probably was the first 
person who laid eyes on the mainland of Amer- 
ica. Perhaps neither party is wholly right. 
Let us glance at the facts about which there is 
no dispute. 

Amerigo Vespucci was born at Florence, in 
the year 1452, of a well-to-do family, and 
received a fairly good education. He engaged 
in mercantile pursuits and finally went to Spain 
and became connected with a man who took a 
large contract for furnishing caravels for foreign 
exploration. He had already devoted much at- 

24 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS 

tendon to the study of astronomy and map- 
making; his business relations threw him much 
in the company of navigators ; and the re- 
sult was that he sailed as a pilot and scientific 
man with Ojeda in his first voyage, in 1499. 
Thus he gained a knowledge of the Pearl Coast 
and observed the manners and customs of the 
natives, whom he afterwards described most inter- 
estingly. Later, it is said, he made other voyages. 
Later still he was appointed Pilot Major of 
Spain, having been selected from among many 
eminent navigators for that highly responsible 
office, in which he had supervision of all maps 
and charts, and was charged with the duty of ex- 
amining pilots in the use of nautical instruments. 
He was well acquainted with Columbus, who 
esteemed him very highly and warmly com- 
mended him to his son. These circumstances 
show his standing and prove that he was not a 
mere landsman who palmed himself off on igno- 
rant people. 

On the other hand, he certainly was careless 
and inaccurate in his dates ; vain and boastful, 
never naming the captain on any vovage on 
which he sailed, but in downright words claiming 
for himself all the credit of whatever was accom- 

25 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

plished ; given to exaggeration and sometimes 
to sheer invention. These facts are evident in 
his writings and have created a prejudice against 
him, incHning many readers to believe him 
wholly a fraud. But this seems to be a too 
sweeping condemnation. Braggarts have some- 
times shown themselves to be really brave, and 
persons addicted to exaggeration may yet be 
truthful in the main. Let us, therefore, not too 
hastily condemn Amerigo Vespucci, — or Amer- 
icus Vespucius, as we call him, using the Latin 
form of his name, — but rather try to get at 
some of the main facts in this controversy. 

First, let us note that there is not any dispute 
whatever as to who led the way to the New 
World. If it was to be named for its discoverer, 
it should have been called Columbia. On this 
point all the world is agreed. The only question 
is as to who first sighted the mainland. Accord- 
ing to the accepted account, Columbus, in his 
third voyage, in 1498, first reached the coast of 
South America, and thus was the discoverer 
of the American continent, as well as of the 
New World, in general. But here comes in 
Vespucci's claim, which was published some 
years later. According to this story, he sailed 

26 



Xmcn di ameri^o vcfpacci 

dcsie ifoie mommcntc 

trouatcirt qnawo 




FRONTISPIECE TO THE FIRST EDITION OF VESPUCCl's LETTERS 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS 

on May lo, 1497 — note the year; made a land- 
fall somewhere on this continent — his usual 
inaccuracy makes it difficult to determine at what 
point; coasted it for many hundreds of miles; 
had a number of adventures with the natives, 
whom he describes quite minutely ; and finally 
returned to Spain with a cargo of Indian captives. 
Of course, if this account is true, there is no 
room for dispute : Vespucci discovered the 
American continent. But, say the admirers of 
Columbus, this alleged voyage of Vespucci, in 
1497, is a wicked invention, intended to rob the 
great discoverer of a part of his just fame. They 
make, in especial, these two points against the 
Florentine: (i) His account of this voyage re- 
lates almost identically the same incidents that 
occurred in Ojeda's first vovage (see the preced- 
ing chapter), on which he undoubtedly was pres- 
ent as a pilot. These occurrences, they say, 
he put into an imaginary voyage, from which he 
carefully omitted Ojeda's name, and to which he 
cunningly gave the date 1497. (2) When King 
Ferdinand tried to reduce as much as possible 
the claims of Columbus as a discoverer, he would 
have gladly welcomed any shadow of proof that 
anybody else had first reached the mainland. 

29 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

But none was forthcoming. On the contrary, 
Ojeda, who was one of the witnesses before the 
royal commissioners, expressly stated that he made 
his first voyage in 1499, that he had Vespucci with 
him as a pilot, that he touched the Pearl coast of 
South America, and there found evidences that 
Columbus had been there the previous year. The 
testimony of all the witnesses went to show that 
Columbus's voyage of 1498 was regarded as the 
discovery of the continent. 

These points certainly are strong against Ves- 
pucci ; but now comes one of another kind. The 
question of the reality of his first alleged voyage 
has nothing whatever to do with the naming of 
our continent. It was on quite other grounds 
that the name " America" was first put on a map. 
He claimed to have made other voyages ; and 
there is reason to believe that he did. Some 
eminent writers have even maintained that he was 
one of the most daring navigators and brilliant 
discoverers of that eventful age, in fact, that he 
was second only to Columbus. Let us give par- 
ticular attention to his story of a voyage so 
remarkable that, if it really was made in all 
particulars as he says, it deserves to be recorded 
among the world's great achievements. 

30 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS 

He sailed, he says, from Lisbon, in May, 1501, 
crossed the Atlantic in "the vilest weather ever 
seen by man," and reached the coast of the coun- 
try now called Brazil. This he followed south- 
ward, in some places having hostile encounters 
with ferocious Indians. Of these he says, " They 
feed on human flesh. I saw one very wicked 
wretch who boasted, as if it were no small honor 
to himself, that he had eaten three hundred men. 
I saw also a certain town, in which I stayed about 
twenty-seven days, where salted human flesh was 
suspended from the roofs of the houses, even as 
we suspend the flesh of the wild boar from the 
beams of the kitchen, after drying and smoking 
it, or as we hang up strings of sausages." The 
climate and the country, however, seemed to 
him so exquisitely delightful that he thought 
that the earthly paradise could not be far 
away. 

Then came a long stretch down the coast which 
brought him to a noble bay, perhaps the one 
where afterwards the city of Rio de Janeiro was 
built. Thence he sailed still south, as far, it may 
be, as the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. Then 
he turned south-east and struck out into the open 
ocean. This change of direction, it must be said, 

31 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

throws doubt on the whole story ; for it was not 
probable that a discoverer following a most inter- 
esting coast, where no ship had ever been before, 
would suddenly leave it for the trackless ocean. 
According to his account, he sailed on and on, 
through stormy seas and bitter cold, heading for 
nowhere in particular, until he came to an island. 
This his admirers identify with South Georgia, 
which lies alone in the broad Atlantic, in latitude 
54°, the same as that of Tierra del Fuego, only 
^6 degrees from the South Pole! Thence he 
headed homeward and reached Lisbon safely in 
September, 1502. This account, his critics say, 
he borrowed from that of a real voyage made in 
1503, by Gonzalo Coelho, who followed the 
coast of Brazil as far south as the mouth of the 
Rio de la Plata. 

Whether or not this extraordinary achievement 
is to be credited, one thing is certain : his story 
put a new name on the map, the name America. 
Its history is remarkable. In the year after his 
return, Vespucci wrote a letter to Lorenzo de 
Medici, in which he uses the expression, " those 
new countries which we have sought and found. 
It is proper to call them a new world.'' In 
employing it Vespucci did not have in mind any 

32 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS 

part of those countries which Columbus had 
visited. They were still believed to belong to 
Asia. He referred only to those regions which 
he professed to have lately viewed. He writes, " I 
have found" — this arrogant phrase is one of the 
things that have created a prejudice against him 
— "a continent more thickly inhabited by peoples 
and animals than our Europe, or Asia, or Africa." 
If he had been called upon to state the relative 
claims of Columbus and himself, he probably 
would have put the matter somewhat in this way : 
" Columbus discovered countries which are parts 
of Asia ; but I have found a continent far to the 
south of the Equator, separated by hundreds of 
leagues of ocean from his discoveries, and never 
before visited, nor even dreamed of. Therefore 
it is proper to call it a new world." Neither he 
nor anybody else at that time had the faintest 
idea of a vast American continent stretching well- 
nigh from pole to pole. This notion of the land 
of Vespucci's alleged discoveries, as wholly dis- 
tinct from the lands which Columbus had found, 
is clearly proved by an old map which shows 
a great continental island marked " Terra Sanctae 
Crucis, Sive Novus Mundus " (" Land of the 
Holy Cross, or the New World "). This was 

35 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

the idea then entertained as to the country now 
known as Brazil, the land of Vespucci's alleged 
finding. A small island marked " Spagnola," 
with a few others about it, indicated the discov- 
eries of Columbus. Compared with the other, 
they look very small. 

Vespucci's letter to Medici had a remark- 
able career. It made a thrilling announcement. 
Hitherto three quarters of the globe had been 
known, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Now the 
fourth quarter had been found ; and Vespucci 
was the man who had found it. His letter was 
taken up by learned people, translated into Latin, 
German, and French, put through various editions, 
and widely read. It made a tremendous sensa- 
tion, such a sensation as Columbus never had 
made, with his insignificant discovery of some 
outlying parts of Asia ! 

The excitement was especially great among 
Vespucci's countrymen in Italy, who knew little 
of the real history of discovery and were willing 
to take his word for much, and in various parts 
of Europe not directly active in exploration. 
The drollest part of the whole story is that the 
name " America " originated at what we should 
call " a fresh-water college," among people who 

36 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS 

knew nothing in a practical way of the whole 
subject. From the little college of Saint Die, in 
Lorraine, on the eastern border of France, there 
was issued, in 1507, a Latin version of one of 
Vespucci's letters, along with a short geographical 
treatise by one Martin Waldseemiiller. This 
little tract contained the suggestion that, since 
Americus Vespucius had discovered the Fourth 
Part of the globe, it should be called after him, 
America. So the mischief was begun, and it 
spread very rapidly. No less than three other 
editions of Waldseemiiller's treatise were issued 
in the same year, and thus thousands of people 
W€re reading its misleading suggestion. No ad- 
mirer of Columbus at that time raised any objec- 
tion, for the simple reason that nobody supposed 
that any injury would be done to his fame, the 
two fields of discovery being held to be absolutely 
distinct. 

Waldseemiiller's proposition involved more 
than he dreamed. When exploration had pro- 
ceeded further, and Brazil was ascertained to be 
part of a great continent, some short and expres- 
sive name was needed for the latter. People 
could not go on forever calling it the " Land 
of Paroquets " and " Land of the Holy Cross," 

37 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

as it was designated on certain old maps. There- 
fore the name America was appHed to the whole 
of South America. This was the second stage 
of the great mistake. 

As time went on South America was ascer- 
tained to be itself part of a great continent. Then 
there was published by Mercator, a famous geog- 
rapher, a map, which is here reproduced, on 
which, for the first time, the name America was 
used to designate the whole Western Hemisphere. 
This last stage of the great mistake was not 
reached until 1538, many years after both Colum- 
bus and Vespucius were in their graves. Thus 
the naming of our continent was finally due to 
the arbitrary procedure of a map-maker, who 
applied to it a name first given, in error, to a small 
part of it. 

Altogether, it is a curious story this, of the 
gradual process by which a name was bestowed 
on the Western World, not in honor of the great 
genius who led Europe to it across the Sea of 
Darkness, but of a comparatively obscure man 
whose claim to have discovered anything at all 
rests wholly on his own statement. One naturally 
asks what was the secret of Vespucci's first success, 
out of which, by a series of mistakes, all the rest 

38 




•-^h Itui JrM 
T S W H • 

I P niJ B 



i ^,>..^g^^^s^ _-_ 

THE FIRST MAP ON WHICH THE NAME AMEli A 




S APPLIED TO THE WHOLE WESTERN CONTINENT 



II 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS 

grew. Undoubtedly it lay in his very entertaining 
letters. Their style was lively ; they were the 
first popular account of the strange things that he 
had seen or imagined in the new world ; and they 
caught the ear of Europe. Columbus did not 
write any such letters. In those which he sent 
to his sovereigns there were brief descriptions and 
enthusiastic statements, sometimes mistaken, but 
always sincere. But he was too busy with actual 
exploration to indulge in fanciful accounts. Not 
so Vespucci. He gave a free rein to his imagina- 
tion and wrote for effect. In that wonder-loving 
age people were ready to believe anything. His 
extravagant tales, as, for instance, of a race of 
giants inhabiting the island of Cura9ao, or of a 
people who commonly lived to the age of 150 
years, fell in with the notions generally enter- 
tained of the New World as a land of marvels. 
He could hardly make a statement too wild to be 
believed. Then came the happy chance of his 
letters being seized upon, printed and reprinted by 
thousands, and scattered all over Europe. They 
gave to the people of the Old World the first 
readable account of the inhabitants of the New, 
and they produced a literary sensation. 

The following extract from one will give an 

43 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

idea of these vivid letters, whose effect was so 
unexpected and so far-reaching. He says of the 
people of the Pearl Coast, " They swim wonder- 
fully well, and the women better than the men ; 
for we have found and seen them many times two ' 

leagues [about six miles] at sea, without any help 1 

whatever in swimming. Their arms are bows and 
arrows, well made, except that they have no iron, 
nor any other kind of hard metal. Instead of 
iron, they use the teeth of animals or fish, or a 
bit of wood well burnt at the point. In some 
places the women use these bows. When they 
go to war they take their women with them ; not | 

because they fight, but because they carry the I 

provisions in rear of the men. A woman carries 
a burden on her back which a man would not 
carry, for thirty or forty leagues [from 90 to 120 
miles], as we have seen many times." These 
people it seems, lived in great communal houses, 
such as those which the Spaniards found occupied 
by the natives of Mexico. Says Vespucci, "In 
some places they are of such length and width 
that we found six hundred souls in one single 
house. We found villages of only thirteen houses 
where there were four thousand inhabitants." 
Yet, in fairness to Vespucci, we ought to re- 

44 



AMERICUS VESPUCIUS 

member that he was only indirectly responsible 
for the naming of the Western Hemisphere. He 
did not solicit, or expect, or even know it, since 
it did not occur until he had been dead nearly 
thirty years. As we have seen, in his claim to 
have discovered " a new world," he evidently had 
not the least notion of setting himself up as a 
rival of Columbus. He meant to say that he 
had done something greater ! Other people did 
the mischief of the naming. 



45 



Chapter III 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA, DISCOVERER OF 
THE PACIFIC 



[O 



Chapter III 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA, DISCOVERER OF 
THE PACIFIC 

Balboa unexpectedly appears on Enciso's ship. — Planting a 
Colony in Darien. — Balboa succeeds in making himself 

Sole Ruler. — His Brilliant Administration He sets out to 

seek the Great Sea. — He Discovers the Pacific. — He re- 
turns to Darien laden with Gold and Pearls. — Appointment 
of Pedrarias to supersede him. — Famine and Sickness 
ravage the Colony. — Balboa builds and launches Ships on 
the Pacific — His Great Plan thwarted by the Jealousy of 
Pedrarias. — Trial and Execution of Balboa. 

LET US go back to Ojeda's partner, 
Enciso. When he sailed from Panama 
he carried, quite unknowingly, one of 
the greatest heroes of those adventu- 
rous times. After he was well away from the 
land, imagine his surprise at seeing a man emerge 
from a cask ! At first he was very angry and 
vowed that he would put the man ashore on a 
desert island. But his wrath was finally appeased. 
The stowaway was a tall, well-knit fellow, with 
reddish hair, bronzed cheeks, and a bright eye. 
His name was Vasco Nunez de Balboa. He 

4 49 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

came of an old family near Palos, in Spain, had 
sailed with Bastides in a voyage of discovery 
along the coast of Panama, and had finally settled 
as a farmer in Hispaniola. But he was a true 
soldier of fortune, loose and prodigal in his habits, 
and was soon overwhelmed with debt. Enciso's 
expedition offered an alluring prospect of profit- 
able adventure. But, a guard having been 
planted to detain fugitive debtors, his problem 
was that of escaping his creditors. He finally 
eluded their watchfulness by having himself 
hauled from his farm to the vessel in a cask 
which was supposed to contain provisions. The 
world before long heard from the contents of that 
cask. 

After Enciso had reached Cartagena, one day 
a little brigantine came into the harbor. Its 
commander, Francisco Pizarro, who had been 
left by Ojeda as his lieutenant at San Sebastian, 
told Enciso the story of the colony's misfortunes. 
After they had waited long for the return of 
Ojeda, famine, sickness, and the Indians' poisoned 
arrows had so reduced their numbers that they 
resolved to return to Hispaniola. They killed 
and salted their remaining horses and put to sea 
in two brigantines. One of these foundered in 

50 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

a gale, and Pizarro's vessel contained the last 
remnant of Ojeda's expedition. 

The other governor, Nicuesa, too, had met 
with terrible experiences by shipwreck, famine, 
and the hostility of the Indians. Of his six 
hundred men but one hundred remained. He 
continued to search, however, for a place suitable 
for his colony. At last he found one and called 
it Nombre de Dios. It later became famed as 
the port from which the Spanish galleons sailed 
with their cargoes of silver brought from Peru 
in vessels and across the Isthmus in mule-trains. 
This was the first habitation of the white race on 
the continent of America. Here Nicuesa and his 
famished band held their lonely watch, waiting 
for supplies that never came, eating reptiles and 
regarding a piece of alligator as a dainty dish. 

Enciso prevailed on Pizarro's crew to abandon 
their ilitention of leaving the colony and to return 
to San Sebastian, whither he was bound. He, 
too, was destined to encounter cruel reverses. 
Just as he was entering the harbor his vessel was 
wrecked. The crew escaped to Pizarro's brigan- 
tine, but the horses, swine, and all the colonial 
supplies were swept away. Not only were the 
provisions lost, but the buildings which Ojeda 

SI 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 



had put up were found in ashes, having been 
burned by the Indians. It was decided to 
abandon San Sebastian. But whither should they 



-^^ 



MAR DEL 
NORTE 




MAR 

Z V R 



C Je LJmsntss 



MAP OF DARIEN 



go ? Then Balboa came forward and described 
a very attractive village on the banks of a river 
called Darien, which he had seen when he was 

5^ 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

with Bastides' expedition exploring this region. 
The Spaniards sailed thither, after a sharp fight 
routed the inhabitants, and took possession of 
their village, with a large quantity of food and 
cotton, and with gold ornaments to the value of 
fitty thousand dollars. From this time forth, 
Darien was the headquarters of the Spaniards. 

Now behold Balboa landed in the country 
where he was destined to win renown ! We shall 
see his success built on the downfall ot the two 
governors, Enciso and Nicuesa. The former 
soon provoked the opposition of his followers by 
arbitrary measures. Balboa diligently fomented 
the ill-feeling by pointing out that Darien was 
situated within the territory assigned to Nicuesa, 
and therefore Enciso had no authority there. 
The men promptly acted on this hint by refus- 
ing obedience to him. Then it was decided to 
send to Nombre de Dios for Nicuesa to come 
to Darien as governor. But before he arrived 
busy tongues were at work, declaring that he 
ruled in very high-handed fashion, and that he 
would be even worse than Enciso. In conse- 
quence, when he sailed into the harbor he was 
met by an angry rabble, who refused to receive 
him as governor and actually chased him into 

S3 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

the woods. Here again we see the work of 
the shrewd Balboa. He, however, interceded for 
Nicuesa to the extent that no violence was done 
him ; and since he would not return to Nombre 
de Dios, he was given a vessel, the worst in the 
harbor, in which to return to Spain. He em- 
barked with a few faithful followers and was 
never again heard of So ended, in tragic gloom, 
the career of the brilliant cavalier who had left 
Spain with six hundred men at his beck. 

The colony was now in a state of revolution. 
Having deposed one of the royal governors and 
driven away the other, the men chose Balboa and 
a man named Zamudio to rule them as alcaldes 
(magistrates). Shortly afterwards Enciso's friends 
prevailed on the rest to let him go away, in order 
to plead his cause in person before the King. To 
present his side of the case Balboa despatched' 
his colleague, Zamudio, along with him, and, to 
secure the royal treasurer's influence in his behalf, 
he secretly sent a round sum of gold; for though 
the Spaniards had little food, they had plenty of 
gold, the spoils of Indian villages. 

Thus Balboa had, within a short time, risen 
by audacity and cunning from being a mere 
interloper in the expedition to the place of sole 

54 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

commander. His ability justified his elevation. 
For the next two years we find him ruling the 
colony as civil magistrate and leading the men 
in war with equal success. He had an amazing 
faculty of winning the confidence of the Indian 
chiefs. One after another had become his 
friend and ally. Others who resisted him were 
routed, and their villages yielded a splendid 
booty in gold. 

Of course, there were the usual romantic ex- 
peditions in which the Conquistadors were sure 
to engage ; at one time to find a fabled temple 
so rich that all its belongings were of solid gold, 
at another a region whose inhabitants, it was said, 
needed only to stretch nets across the streams 
to catch the gold that was swept down by 
freshets in nuggets as large as pigeons' eggs. 
Balboa did not find either, but he did hear 
of something that was no myth. More than 
once he was told, in the course of his forays, 
of a vast ocean beyond the mountains. Then 
the purpose began to form in his mind to dis- 
cover that ocean and explore its shores. He 
wrote a letter to the King and sent it along 
with a remittance of gold, informing him of 
this alleged ocean and asking that a thousand 

55 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

men be sent him, in order that he might under- 
talce its discovery. This certainly was an auda- 
cious request from one who actually was in the 
position of a rebel ruling a revolted colony. 
But he knew Ferdinand well enough to feel 
assured that he would forgive anything to the 
successful adventurer who should add to his 
dominions and pour gold into his treasury. 

Before any reply to this request came, he 
received a disturbing letter from Zamudio. The 
King had heard Enciso's complaint, and had 
given judgment in his favor. Worse yet, Bal- 
boa was to be summoned to Spain to answer 
for his treatment of Nicuesa. He saw that 
but one course could save him. He must act 
immediately on his project of exploration. If 
that should be successful, he was sure of Ferdi- 
nand's favor. He was still free, since the royal 
order had not yet come, and he resolved to 
waste no time. It was a tremendous undertaking. 
There were dense tropical forests to be threaded, 
a lofty mountain-ridge to be scaled, and fierce 
tribes to be overcome. For this task he had 
less than two hundred able-bodied men. But 
if he shrank from it, ruin and death stared him 
in the face, 

56 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

On the I St of September, 15 13, he sailed away 
with a hundred and ninety men and several of 
those savage bloodhounds which always struck 
terror into the Indians, together with a number 
of native guides. The expedition was embarked 
in a brigantine and nine large pirogues. Arrived 
at Coyba, the domain of a friendly chief, he left 
these craft under the care of about half of his 
men and struck off into the mountains. The 
march was extremely difficult. The Spaniards, 
encumbered with their heavy armor and weap- 
ons and oppressed by the tropical heat, had 
to climb rocky precipices and to struggle through 
dense and tangled vegetation. On the third day 
they reached a village whose inhabitants had fled. 
It was necessary to procure guides acquainted 
with the wilderness that lay before the Spaniards. 
Balboa sent some of his Indians, who persuaded 
the reluctant chief to visit him. Then he so 
won the Indian's heart that he furnished him 
with guides and pointed out a lofty ridge from 
the top of which the ocean was to be seen. 

From this place Balboa sent back a number 
of his men who had fallen ill from fatigue and 
the heat, and made a fresh start. In the next 
four days the Spaniards did not succeed in 

57 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 



advancing more than about thirty miles. Then 
they came into the territory of a chief who was 
a deadly enemy to the tribe that had furnished 
the guides. Seeing the small number of Span- 
iards, he attacked 
them with reck- 
less fury. But 
the first discharge 
of fire-arms struck 
dismay into his 
followers. They 
fled and were 
hotly pursued by 
the Spaniards and 
their ferocious 
dogs. Many were 
killed, and sev- 
eral who were 
taken prisoners 
were deliberately 
given to be torn 
to pieces by the bloodhounds. The village 
yielded a large quantity of gold and jewels. It 
lay at the foot of the last mountain that was to 
be climbed. 

Leaving there a number of men who were 




INDIANS KILLED BY DOGS 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

disabled by wounds, and taking fresh guides, 
Balboa started off with but sixty-seven men, 
in the cool hour of daybreak, for the final as- 
cent. About ten o'clock the explorers emerged 
from the forest and came to the foot of an emi- 
nence from which the guides said that the ocean 
was visible. Balboa left his party behind, in order 
that nobody might share his honor, and climbed 
alone to the mountain-top. 

Then what a vision burst upon him ! Beyond 
a wide intervening belt of rocks and forest and 
green savannahs, glittering in the morning sun, 
lay that vast mysterious ocean which Columbus 
and others had conjectured, but which no Euro- 
pean had yet beheld. It was indeed a glorious 
discovery. Yet, in that day, who could foresee 
what it meant to unborn generations? 

Balboa summoned his followers. At the sight 
of the ocean they were so carried away with de- 
light that they embraced him and one another. 
The Te Deum was chanted, a cross was erected, 
and from that lofty height the leader took pos- 
session of the vast ocean, with all its islands and 
surrounding lands, in the name of his master. 
Mar del Sur (Southern Ocean) was the name by 
which it became known among the Spaniards. 

59 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Magellan, eight years later, was the first to call 
it the Pacific, when he entered it from the stormy 
Atlantic and was impressed with its majestic 
tranquillity. 

The discovery was made on Sept. 26, 15 13. 
Twenty days had been consumed in travers- 




BALnOA TAKING POSSESSION OF THE PACIFIC 

ing a distance which probably did not exceed 
forty miles, so great were the difficulties to be 
overcome. 

The bold adventurers now descended the 
western slope of the mountains, in quest of the 
rich kingdoms of which they had heard. They 
soon came to the borders of a warlike chief who, 

60 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

seeing their small numbers, forbade them to set 
foot in his dominions. But a volley from the 
arquebuses, followed by the savage bloodhounds, 
slew many and made the rest sue for peace with 
these terrible strangers who wielded thunder and 
lightning. To propitiate their favor, the chief 
brought a quantity of wrought gold, — not five 
hundred pounds, however, we may be sure, 
though the imaginative Spanish chroniclers make 
that statement. 

Friendship having been established, Balboa 
quartered himself in the village for some days, 
sent back for his men who had been left at the 
foot of the mountain, and despatched three par- 
ties by different paths to find the best route to 
the sea. One of these was led by Pizarro. It 
was not the future conqueror of Peru, however, 
but Alonzo Martin, who was the successful one. 
After two days' journey he came to a beach where 
two canoes lay. He pushed one into the water, 
stepped into it, and called his companion to wit- 
ness that he was the first European to embark on 
that sea. 

On reaching the coast, Balboa, taking a banner 
on which were painted the Virgin and Child, and 
under them the royal arms of Spain, and draw- 

6i 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

ing his sword, waded knee-deep into the water 
and solemnly proclaimed that ocean, with all ad- 
jacent lands, from pole to pole, to be the prop- 
erty of the Castilian sovereigns, " as long as the 
world endures, and until the final day of judg- 
ment." He was a better discoverer than prophet, 
the twentieth century testifies. 

Altogether, the Spaniards spent about a month 
on the shore of the Pacific, receiving from the 
Indian chiefs truly royal gifts in gold and pearls, 
which were gathered thereabouts in great abun- 
dance. They carried away some magnificent 
specimens, to be sent to Spain. But what most 
of all aroused the interest of the great explorer 
was the report of a country, far to the south, 
abounding in gold, where the inhabitants used 
certain quadrupeds to carry burdens. A figure 
moulded in clay to represent these animals seemed 
to the Spaniards somewhat like a deer, somewhat 
like a camel, for as yet none of them had seen 
a llama. From that time Balboa's busy mind 
was filled with the thought of sailing to that 
mysterious realm and conquering it. 

He was now ready to strike across the moun- 
tains towards Darien. With his usual skill in 
conciliating the natives, he had made friends 

62 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

wherever he had gone, and he and his men 
had collected a royal treasure in gold and pearls. 
The last chief who entertained him furnished 
him with a stock of provisions sufficient for 
several days and sent a number of his subjects 
to carry the Spaniards' loads. 

The homeward march led the adventurers 
through entirely new scenes and was full of 
perils. They came to the deserted village of 
a chief named Poncra, who was reputed to be 
enormously rich. In the empty houses they 
found gold ornaments to the value of several 
thousand dollars. But this was merely enough 
to sharpen their appetite. Poncra was hunted, 
found in his hiding-place, and dragged before 
the conqueror. First persuasion was used, then 
torture, to compel him to tell where he obtained 
his gold. In vain the wretched man protested 
that what the Spaniards had found had been 
accumulated long ago, that he set no value on 
the metal, and did not know where to seek it. 
There is no doubt that this was true. The 
Indians cared for gold only as bright stuff, suit- 
able for being beaten into trinkets. They were 
amazed at the Spaniards' greed for it and were 
quite willing to load them with it, thinking that 

63 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

they had the best of the bargain when they re- 
ceived in return a string of glass beads and a 
few little brass bells. But Balboa was furious 
at what he considered the obstinacy of the 
trembling savage, and on the pretext that he 
was accused by his neighbors of cruelty, de- 
livered him, with three others, to be torn in 
pieces by dogs. 

The path of the victorious invaders was beset by 
hardships. They almost perished with hunger, in 
consequence of having loaded their Indian porters 
with plunder, instead of provisions. 

The last hostile encounter was with a powerful 
chief named Tubanama (whence, it seems, the 
name Panama), who had eighty wives. Balboa 
surprised his village and captured him. His 
Deople, being then made to ransom him, brought 
in gold ornaments to the value of many thou- 
sands of dollars. 

The rest of the homeward march was very ex- 
hausting. Balboa himself suffered with fever and 
was borne in a hammock by Indians. On the 
1 8th of January he reached Darien, having been 
absent four months and a half. The whole popu- 
lation turned out to welcome the discoverer of the 
Pacific returning laden with the rich spoils of con- 

64 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

quered tribes and followed by a long train of 
captives, male and female. 

Now came a disastrous crisis in the great 
explorer's career. 

As soon as he returned from his famous dis- 
covery, he despatched a special envoy to Spain 
with a letter to the King giving an account of it, 
with a splendid gift of pearls from himself and his 
companions, besides the regular tax to the royal 
treasury, which consisted of one fifth of all profits. 
Unhappily, the vessel was detained some two 
months before sailing, and the delay proved 
fatal. Ferdinand, after listening to the com- 
plaint of Enciso, had resolved to appoint an- 
other governor for Darien to supersede Balboa. 
For this post he selected Pedro Arias Davila, 
commonly known as Pedrarias, a singularly unfit 
man, but highly recommended by that most ac- 
complished wire-puller. Bishop Fonseca. 

The fame of Darien as a countrv of enormous 
wealth attracted a host of adventurers, eager to 
sail with the new governor. Columbus had had 
difficulty in gathering his scanty crews, and the 
royal power had been exercised to compel men 
to embark. Now the trouble was to keep them 
at home. Hopeful adventurers were willing to 

5 65 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

pay all their expenses to have a chance at the 
Castilla de Oro (Golden Castle), as the Spaniards 
now called Darien. Pedrarias was licensed to 
take out fifteen hundred men. Bv various 
devices more than two thousand sailed. 

Scarcely had the splendid armament put to 
sea when Balboa's belated envoy arrived. He 
delivered his letters, told of Balboa's brilliant 
discovery, and laid before Ferdinand's greedy 
eyes the wrought-gold ornaments and the huge 
pearls with which he was entrusted. Immedi- 
ately Balboa rose to immense importance. The 
man who had collected such treasures could not 
be a usurper and was not to be lightly set aside. 
The King regretted his harshness towards him 
and determined to make him a colleague of 
Pedrarias, entitled to equal honor. But his ap- 
pointment was not officially announced for some 
time. 

Pedrarias arrived at Darien and made a 
triumphal entry into the town, at the head of 
two thousand men in brilliant array. They 
found Balboa and his five hundred seasoned 
veterans wearing cotton clothes, and were ban- 
queted in straw-thatched cabins on roots and 
cassava-bread, washed down with water. This 

66 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

was all very different from what the gay cavaliers 
expected. 

At first Pedrarias treated Balboa with a great 
show of cordiality. But when he had drawn 
from him full information about the surrounding 
region and its chiefs, he began a series of petty 
persecutions. He hit upon the plan of employ- 
ing him in enterprises in which he would not 
be likely to succeed, and thus lowering his 
prestige. 

Soon things were going very ill in the colony. 
Darien was excessively hot and sickly. The 
provisions brought from Spain had been con- 
sumed. Famine and disease combined made 
fearful inroads. Within a short time seven 
hundred of the dashing cavaliers who had followed 
Pedrarias were dead. A ship-load sailed away 
for Cuba, and another for Spain. Of those who 
could not get away, some who had mortgaged 
estates at home to fit themselves out gallantly, 
died of actual hunger. Others were seen to 
barter a garment of gorgeous silk or rich brocade 
for a pound of bread. The expeditions, too, 
which Pedrarias had set on foot had failed dis- 
astrously. One of the most calamitous was one 
sent to the Pearl Islands, which Balboa had seen 

67 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

in the Pacific. It was led by Morales and 
Pizarro. 

These two ferocious soldiers reached their goal 
and got a splendid treasure in choice pearls. 
But their excessive cruelty aroused the whole 
country against them. At an assault on a village 
they met with so fierce a resistance that they 
were glad to get away. Now their path was be- 
set everywhere by lurking foes shooting their 
arrows from behind rocks and bushes. Their 
situation grew desperate. They lighted their 
camp-fires at night and stole away. But the 
enemy were quickly on their tracks and around 
them again. Nine days and nights they were 
hunted through woods and swamps and over 
mountains. At last, after almost incredible hard- 
ships, they reached Darien, exhausted and 
emaciated, but still clinging to some of the 
treasure they had gained in the islands. One of 
the pearls was put up at auction and was bought 
by Pedrarias. His wife presented it to the 
Empress, who, in return, gave her four thousand 
ducats. 

Another expedition was defeated by the chief 
Tubanama. Still another, consisting of a hundred 
and eighty men, was overwhelmed and annihi- 

6^6 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

lated : only an Indian boy escaped to tell of the 
massacre. 

The colony had been so weakened by its 
losses, and the natives so emboldened by success, 
that the Spaniards lived in constant dread. The 
friends of Balboa did not fail to point out the 
contrast between this series of disasters and his 
career of conquest and successful administration. 
The Governor himself was full of apprehensions 
that he might be recalled, and Balboa appointed 
to his old place. Then the Bishop of Darien 
suggested to Pedrarias that, instead of treating 
the bold adventurer as an enemy, it would be 
better policy to form an alliance with him by 
giving him one of his daughters in marriage. 
The Governor liked the idea, for Balboa was a 
man by all means to be conciliated. The King's 
letter had come appointing him a colleague of 
Pedrarias, and nothing but the latter's jealousy 
stood in the way of their working together 
harmoniously. He proposed the alliance, and 
Balboa gladly accepted the offer. A written 
agreement was signed for the marriage to be 
solemnized so soon as the young lady could be 
brought from Spain. 

Now Balboa, once more on the crest of the 

69 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

wave of prosperity, began to carry out a project 
of extraordinary boldness and originality. He 
wished to explore the Pacific coast, and since 
there were no vessels on that side, nor any 
facilities for building any, he determined to cut 
and shape the timbers on the Atlantic coast and 
to transport them, along with the anchors and 
cordage, across the Isthmus. It was a stupendous 
undertaking, but it was actually carried out. 
Fancy what it was for men, since there were not 
any draught-animals, to toil up the rough moun- 
tain paths and across rocky gorges, under the 
scorching rays of a tropical sun, carrying the heavy 
timbers. Of course, the burden of it all fell on 
the poor, enslaved Indians. Hundreds of them 
perished before the terrible task was accomplished. 
But that was of small account, and the old Spanish 
writers gave no heed to it when they proudly 
wrote of this herculean work that " none but 
Spaniards could ever have conceived or persisted 
in such an undertaking; and no commander in 
the New World but Vasco Nuiiez could have 
conducted it to a successful issue." 

Now behold two brigantines afloat on the 
Pacific ! What a proud moment was that for 
Balboa when he launched the first European 

70 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

vessel on the ocean which he had discovered ! 
He embarked and sailed first to the Pearl Islands. 
Then he headed south, and if the wind had con- 
tinued favorable, probably he would have dis- 
covered Peru. But the wind changed, and he 
put back, resolved to finish two more brigan- 
tines before starting on his great voyage of ex- 
ploration. He needed some iron and pitch, and 
he sent across the mountains for these. Fatal 
delay ! It cost him the discovery and conquest 
of Peru and brought his head to the block. Not 
the wind only, but the Governor had changed. 
Busybodies had been at work, suggesting to 
him that Balboa and his officers were engaged in 
a plot to set up an independent government on 
the Pacific coast and throw off allegiance to the 
Spanish crown. Moreover, they said, Balboa 
had no intention of marrying his daughter, being 
wholly under the influence of a beautiful Indian 
girl. The weak old Governor was wrought to a 
paroxysm of jealous fury. He determined to 
arrest Balboa instantly. A letter expressed in 
the friendliest terms invited him to come at once 
to Darien to confer about matters of importance. 
For fear, however, that Balboa might suspect a 
trap and decline to walk into it, he ordered 

71 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Pizarro immediately to collect all the men he could 
and to go and arrest his former commander. 

Balboa, all unsuspicious of evil, so soon as he 
received the Governor's letter set out for Da- 
rien. On the way he met Pizarro with an armed 
force. When the latter told him that he was a 
prisoner, he was amazed, but submitted quietly 
and was taken to Darien in irons. He was 
brought to trial, charged with treasonable inten- 
tions, and the accusation was supported by 
various scraps of evidence, chiefly manufactured. 
In vain he pleaded his innocence. In vain he 
reminded the Justiciary that he had at his bid- 
ding on the other coast four vessels and three 
hundred stanch followers ; that he needed only 
to spread his canvas and sail away, to find some 
country in which they might all have been far 
beyond the Governor's reach and well provided 
for the rest of their lives ; and that his ready 
obedience to the Governor's summons was the 
best proof of his absolute innocence. His con- 
viction was a foregone conclusion. The Justiciary, 
hard pressed by the Governor, found him guilty, 
but recommended him to mercy, in consideration 
of his great services. Pedrarias would not enter- 
tain this suggestion. No ; if he was guilty, let 

72 



VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA 

him die, and the sooner the better. He sen- 
tenced him, along with four others, to be be- 
headed at once. 

The populace were moved to tears at the fate 
of their idol, the man who had founded Darien 
and given it all the success it had known, and 
whose fame had gone thence through all the 
world. He met his end with calm courage, pro- 
testing his innocence to the last. So perished, 
in the prime of his manhood, one of the world's 
pet heroes. 



73 



chapter IV 

JUAN PONCE DE LEON, DISCOVERER OF FLORIDA 



Chapt 



er IV 



JUAN PONCE DE LEON, DISCOVERER OF FLORIDA 

Ponce de Leon conquers Porto Rico. — He sails in search of 
the Fountain of Perpetual Youth. — He re-discovers Florida. 
He attempts to conquer it and is killed. — Ayllon's dastardly 
Raid and its Punishment. 

AMONG the adventurous Spanish cav- 
aliers who sailed with Columbus on 
his second voyage, eager to learn 
more of the wonderful land beyond 
the Sea of Darkness, was a seasoned soldier of 
the Moorish Wars, Juan Ponce de Leon, " lion 
by name and lion bv nature," as a poet wrote 
of him. At a later time we find him placed as 
military commander at the eastern end of His- 
paniola, or San Domingo. Hence his eyes were 
naturally turned eastward to the beautiful island 
of Boriquen, afterwards called Porto Rico. He 
visited it and was hospitably entertained by a 
chief. The sight of its swelling mountains and 
its smiling valleys watered by sparkling streams, 
inflamed his heart with the desire to conquer and 

77 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

possess this fair land. Moreover, when he in- 
quired about gold, as the Spaniards always did, 
the Indians pointed to the mountains. That was 
enough. The prospect of gold fevered his brain. 
He returned to Hispaniola, asked, and obtained 
leave to lead an expedition to the island. 

The natives did not tamely submit. But 
their resistance was soon overcome. 

Ponce de Leon was made governor of the 
island and had ample opportunity, which he did 
not neglect, of making himself rich at the expense 
of the poor Indians. 

The oppression and cruelty of the Spaniards 
soon produced its natural result, an uprising of 
the natives. The conquerors were so few and 
the Indians so numerous that for a time things 
looked serious. But Ponce's vigorous and ruth- 
less hand speedily quenched the flames of war 
and the hopes of the Indians in blood. One of 
his most formidable followers was a savage blood- 
hound named Berezillo. He was so fierce a 
fighter that he was rated as a soldier, and his 
master drew for him full pay and allowances. 
We may remember that Columbus first em- 
ployed dogs in fighting the natives. The 
Indians, quite unaccustomed to fierce animals, — 

78 



JUAN PONCE DE LEON 

for the West Indies have no native quadrupeds 
of any size, — stood scarcely less in awe of these 
ferocious beasts than of the Spaniards' deadly guns. 
The insurrection put down. Ponce ruled his island 
province in the true heart-breaking fashion which 
the Spanish government vainly sought to check, 
and had every reason to be content with his lot. 
Only one thing he lacked — time. Give him 
years enough, and what might he not achieve ? 
But, alas ! he was war-worn, and age was stif- 
fening his limbs. 

Then came a legend to his ears that thrilled 
his heart with hope. The Indians told of a 
country to the north where there was a river 
whose waters would restore to perpetual youth 
whosoever bathed in them. There was an island, 
too, by name Bimini, where there was said to be 
a fountain possessing the same miraculous quality. 

At least, so the Spaniards understood the In- 
dians. But the fact is that this legend is a good 
example of the way in which the natives were 
again and again reported to have said things 
which they never had the least thought of say- 
ing. That famous old traveler and romancer. 
Sir John Maundeville, whose book was pub- 
lished about a hundred years before Columbus 

19 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

was born, told a story of a river in Asia whose 
waters healed the sick and restored youth to the 
aged. He knew the fact, he said, because he had 
tried the water. To-day a child in the nursery 
would recognize this as a fairy tale. Not so the 
people of that wonder-loving age. They be- 
lieved it. The storv was handed down from 
one person to another; and so it easily happened 
that Ponce or some of his men, always expecting 
the marvelous, easily put that meaning on some- 
thing that they had heard from the Indians. 

Straightway we see the grizzled, battered vet- 
eran manning his little vessels and making sail to 
seek the magric island. For some distance he 
followed the northern shore of Hispaniola, then 
shaped a course to the northwest among the 
Bahamas. On he went, asking wherever he 
touched for Bimini. Nobody could tell him of 
it. In time, seeking the Fountain of Youth, he 
came to Guanahani, where twenty years earlier, 
the great discoverer, seeking Cipango and the 
empire of the Grand Khan, had first set foot in 
the New World. But nowhere was the magic 
spring. Still hopeful, he held his course, and 
yet new islands rose out of the sea before him, 
but no Bimini. At last, toward the close of 

80 



JUAN PONCE DE LEON 

March, he sighted a long, low, wooded coast. 
For days baffling winds kept him at a distance, 
and he hovered in sight of the land of promise. 

On Easter Sunday, 15 13, bright skies and soft 
breezes invited him to a nearer approach. The 
land welcomed him with fragrant odors, as if 
Nature had arrayed herself for the great Christian 
festival which, on that day, the churches at home 
were keeping with a profusion of flowers, Pascua 
Florida (Flowery Easter). Therefore, what name 
could be fitter for this country than Florida ? 

The lamented Dr. John Fiske, to whom Amer- 
icans owe a great debt for his researches in the 
history of our country, has clearly shown in his 
"Discovery of America" that Florida was seen 
by Spaniards at least twelve years before Ponce 
de Leon sighted it. The outline of the peninsula 
is plainly drawn on an old map published in 1502. 
But, in a time when explorers were most anxious 
to find gold and pearls, there was not anything 
of interest to fix attention on this new coast, and 
it seems to have been forgotten. Thus Ponce de 
Leon's achievement really was a re-discovery. 

Ponce landed not far, it seems, from the site of 
St. Augustine. But when he essayed to explore 
the country, he met everywhere fierce resistance. 
6 81 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

The natives were no peaceful islanders, and they 
defended their soil valiantly. For some time he 
ranged down the coast, bathing in all the springs 
he could reach. Alas ! no magic virtue was in 
any. He came out of the waters the same aged 
and worn figure. At last, disheartened, he bore 



1 ( . 1 ■~t IL t«__4JL_i» ■t.^tJT^.Cf>7S^'"y'ica^^^ 




~Ju<.' fOiT-ce pelca cOTL-t^O' -Xe la y LoticUl 



PONCE DE LEOX FIGHTING THE NATIVES OF FLORIDA 

away for Porto Rico. On his homeward way, he 
touched at islands that were alive with sea-towl 
and marine animals. On one his sailors caught 
one hundred and seventy turtles in a single night. 
He called the group Tortugas (Turtles). 

If one takes passage from Miami, Florida, for 
Nassau, in the Bahamas, he passes, about sixty 

82 



JUAN PONCE DE LEON 

miles out in the ocean, a lonely little group bear- 
ing the name of Bimini. Behold the object of 
Ponce de Leon's famous quest ! But if he had 
failed in his main purpose, he achieved something 
noteworthy. He had found, as he believed, an- 
other great island, for such he supposed Florida 
to be. Accordingly, he hastened to Spain, to 
report his discovery and get the credit of it. 
His master was delighted and sent him back to 
America to rule Porto Rico and to conquer and 
govern Florida. 

For some years, however, Ponce de Leon re- 
mained quiet. Then the world rang with the 
fame of Balboa's and Cortes' achievements. The 
old warrior's soul was roused to take the field 
once more. He did not doubt that the great 
unexplored region which he had coasted held 
within it rich countries, such as those which had 
been found in Mexico and on the Isthmus of 
Panama. He would go and conquer his province. 
Once more, then, — in 1521, — we see him sail- 
ing for the continent, this time with an ample force 
of men, with horses and all that he needed to 
possess the land. But wherever he went his 
former experience repeated itself. At every point 
naked savages fought desperately against the 

83 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

mailed warriors of Spain. In one of these en- 
counters he received a wound and was talcen on 
board his ship. His most dreaded enemy, age, 
had sapped his vital energy, and he slowly sank. 
The Spaniards gave up the attempted conquest 
and sailed for home, carrying their wounded 
leader. He reached Porto Rico only to die. 
Florida, instead of immortal youth, had given 
him an earlier grave. 

One other disastrous attempt on the Atlantic 
coast must be mentioned, not because it had any 
purpose of exploration, but because it resulted in 
a discovery. In the few years that had elapsed 
since the coming of the Spaniards into the West 
Indies, under their cruel exactions the natives 
were fast dying out. It was necessary to recruit 
laborers for the mines from some quarter. In 
1520 Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, a high official 
of Santo Domingo, took two vessels to cruise 
among the Bahamas on a slave-catching expedi- 
tion. Easterly gales drove him out of his way, 
and he brought up on a strange coast. The 
country was enchanting and the natives friendly. 
They called the region Chicora. The Spaniards 
gave the name St. Helena to a headland, and it 
still clings to an island and the adjacent sound. 

84 



JUAN PONCE DE LEON 

Entering the mouth of a river, probably the 
Combahee, they called it the Jordan. Thus, in 
1520, the seaboard of the future State of South 
Carolina was first visited by white men. 

It would have been well for the kindly natives 




ST. HELENA, THE SCENE OF AYLLON'S TREACHERY 

if they had known the character of these pale- 
faced strangers whom they held to be beings from 
a higher world. They lavished on them their 
simple hospitality. In return, the Spaniards in- 
vited them on board. The confiding savages 
came without hesitation and explored every part 

85 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

of the vessels. When the holds were full of cu- 
rious sight-seers, at a signal the slave-catchers 
closed the hatches. Then they sailed away with 
their mournful freight. But their greed was pun- 
ished. One vessel was lost^ On the other the 
captives refused food, pined, and mostly died 
before the end of the voyage. 

Retribution was in store for Ayllon. His 
discovery having been rewarded by his master, 
Charles V., with the governorship of Chicora, he 
sailed in 1526 to take possession of his province. 
Again the natives seemed friendly. But this 
time they had a purpose. They had learned 
a lesson from the Spaniards. When the latter 
had been put completely off" their guard, they 
were invited some miles inland to take part in a 
great festival. Nearly all went. For three days 
they were feasted. Then, when they were scat- 
tered and sleeping, suddenly their hosts fell upon 
them savagely and in overwhelming numbers. 
The most were slaughtered. A few escaped 
with the dreadful tidings to the vessels. Ayllon, 
with a handful of survivors, got up sail and re- 
turned to Santo Domingo, dejected and ruined 
by his losses. He made no further attempt to 
take possession of his province. 

86 



JUAN PONCE DE LEON 

So far as we are informed, no white man saw 
the shore of South CaroHna again for ^6 years, 
when Frenchmen visited and named Port Royal, 
quite near St. Helena. Their leader. Captain 
Jean Ribault, knew the story of the Spanish 
visit and thought that he identified the river 
Jordan. 



87 



Chapter V 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS. LAS CASAS, THE 
INDIANS' FRIEND 



chapter V 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS. LAS CASAS, THE 
INDIANS' FRIEND 

Probable Birthplace of the American Race. — Its Oneness. — 
Who built the Earth-Mounds. — No Native Civilization in 
America. — What Sort of People the Inhabitants of the 
West Indies were. — The Fierce Caribs. — How Indian 
Slavery began. — Character of the Spanish Colonists. — 
Atrocious Cruelty towards Indians. — Las Casas comes 
forward as their Friend. — His Heroic Labors in their 
Behalf. — What he achieved. 

WHO are the people whom the first 
European visitors found in posses- 
sion of our country ? Indians we 
call them. But the name, as every 
one knows, is a mistake, growing out of the 
error of Columbus, who supposed the land which 
he had discovered to be the eastern part of India. 
Therefore the name does not give us any light. 
Nor have these people any history or legends 
that will help us in our inquiry. Yet we may 
take it for an almost certain fact that, at some 
time in the dim past, the forefathers of our Indians 
came upon this continent from another. 

91 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Until quite recently the commonly accepted 
opinion has been that the Indians came from 
Asia, crossing Behring Strait in canoes, as is fre- 
quently done at the present day by natives. Some 
able writers maintain that the Aleutian Islands are 
the highest points of a land, now sunk, which once 
extended from one continent to the other, so that 
America and Asia were one. Of late, however, 
scholars have generally inclined to a different opin- 
ion as to the origin of the Indians. The study of 
the earth's crust shows plainly that there once ex- 
isted a land-connection over the North Atlantic, 
so that Europe and America formed a single 
continent. For this reason, along with others, 
the general opinion seems to be that the fore- 
fathers of our Indians came from Europe upon 
this continent during, if not before, what is 
called the Great Ice Age, when a vast sheet 
of ice overspread our continent as far south as 
the latitude of Philadelphia. This opinion is 
based on the discovery of human skeletons, along 
with stone implements and weapons, in strata of 
gravel which were deposited during the Ice Age. 
Since this period is placed by geologists at many 
thousands of years ago, it is no longer a question 
of vital interest where the original immigrants 

92 




RUSHING EAGLE, A MANDAN CHIEF 



I 






THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

came from. Their descendants have been here 
for countless generations, long enough certainly 
to develop a race-character of their own. We 
may therefore speak of them as a distinct people, 
the American Race?- 

The fanciful notion of great, mysterious nations 
that once peopled this continent, but have dis- 
appeared, has given place among scholars to the 
more reasonable belief that all the existing native 
peoples of America, from the highest to the lowest, 
from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn, with the 
possible exception of the Eskimos, belong to one 
original stock, and that all the structures whose 
remains are to be found in various regions were 
erected by the ancestors of tribes now existing. 
This statement includes the mounds found in 
the valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and 
the ruins of massive buildings which are seen 
in Central America. There does not seem to 
be any special difficulty in accounting for the 
mounds. The best opinion is that the earliest 
were built by tribes which afterwards settled in 
Mexico and Central America, and the more recent 
ones by the forefathers of the present Creeks and 

1 See Chapter XIII., Appendix, p. i8o, where the theory of an 
Asiatic origin is stated. 

3S 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

other tribes. These, at some tune in their varied 
experience, may have seen reason to rear struc- 
tures of this kind. The lamented Dr. John Fiske 
truly remarks that, at one period of their history, 
our forefathers in England built castles ; but no- 
body would think of speaking of a race of castle- 
builders. Moreover, the age of the mounds has 
been greatly exaggerated. It has been customary 
to speak of them as if they belonged to a very 
remote antiquity. The truth is that, while some 
are undoubtedly ancient, others certainly were 
built since the coming of white men to America, 
for in some have been found articles of European 
manufacture. That eminent scholar, the late 
Dr. Brinton, remarks, " The opinion is steadily 
gaining ground that probably the builders of the 
Ohio earth-works were the ancestors of the Creeks, 
Cherokees, and other southern tribes." There 
is good reason, however, for believing that the 
builders of some of the older mounds were, in 
some manner, at least intimately connected with 
the peoples known in history as the Mexicans 
and the Mayas. (See pp. i86 and 198.) It is 
equally certain that the age of the impressive ruins 
in Central America has been greatly overesti- 
mated. There is the best reason for believing 

96 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

that these structures were reared by the same race 
of Mayas who still inhabit Yucatan, and that they 
were comparatively recent at the time of the 
Spanish conquest. 

The application of reason to the problem will 
dispel some other fanciful notions that have been 
commonly held as to the natives of America. The 
Spanish conquerors and their historians called 
Indian persons and things by European names, 
without caring whether or not the names were 
truly descriptive. The chief of a tribe they called 
a king ; the war-chief of a league of several tribes 
they called an emperor. It was easy to de- 
scribe a great communal building, with hundreds 
of rooms, in which a thousand or more people 
lodged under one roof, as a palace, and the great 
common meal, served for all the inmates, as a 
royal banquet. Besides, such terms would make 
an imposing impression in Europe. Added to 
this carelessness was a habit of gross exaggeration. 
If they met five thousand natives in battle, they 
were as likely as not to report fifty thousand. 
Everything their pens touched was hugely mag- 
nified and fancifully embellished. And as the 
Spaniards were the first white men who came in 
contact with the native Americans, their reports 

7 97 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

colored the opinion of all Europe. The result 
was a wholly mistaken view of Indian life and 
society. These errors have endured almost until 
the present day. Happily, these exaggerated 
opinions are giving way to a truer understand- 
ing of the subject. Instead of emperors and 
kings, palaces and courtiers, lords and gentlemen, 
sumptuous banquets served in vessels of solid 
gold, and all the gorgeous paraphernalia of 
European royalty, there was, we now know, not 
anywhere in America anything that could properly 
be called a civilization. In some regions there 
was, at the best, a highly advanced barbarism, 
with a few arts remarkably developed. 

In classifying races as to social culture the 
making of pottery is commonly regarded as 
marking the dividing-line between savagery and 
barbarism, and certain industrial arts are held to 
indicate the transition from barbarism to civiliza- 
tion. Accepting this rule, we may say that the 
American aborigines, at the time of the Discovery, 
were found in three stages. A few of the most 
degraded tribes were in a state of savagery, and 
the great body of the Indians in a low state of 
barbarism. A few only of the most advanced 
peoples had reached a higher state of barbarism. 

98 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

It is, therefore, incorrect to speak of any native 
American race as civilized. And it is equally 
incorrect to call any, except a few degraded tribes, 
such as the Diggers, savages. We make an 
absurd misuse of terms when we apply the same 
designation to a race that has produced such 
leaders in war and council as King Philip and 
Pontiac and Tecumseh and Sitting Bull, as that 
which we bestow on the Bushmen of Africa. 
The correct term for our Indians, in general, 
classes them as barbarians. 

In studying the native Americans language 
has been the most important help. Words are 
deeply interesting, if we examine their origin. 
Often they give us an insight into the way in 
which people thought and felt long centuries 
ago. For instance, the word disaster is made 
up of two words which mean unfavorable star. 
Thus it carries us back to a time when it was 
commonly believed that the heavenly bodies con- 
trolled all human actions for good or ill, and 
that nothing could be successfully carried out, if 
the stars were not propitious. Again, take our 
word daughter. If we trace it back just as far 
as we can, we find that it was used, ages ago, by 
a people whose language, called Sanskrit, has 

99 

L.cfC. 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

not been spoken for many centuries, and that it 
meant a milker. Therefore it connects us with a 
time when the old race kept large herds of cattle, 
which were milked by the young women of the 
tribe. This word is one of the many hundreds 
which furnish clear proof that the forefathers 
of the fair-skinned English, Germans, Swedes, 
Danes, and other European peoples, were of 
the same race with the forefathers of the dark 
Hindoos, who spoke Sanskrit; and it becomes 
evident either that the race which settled in 
Hindostan migrated from Europe or that the 
race which peopled Western Europe migrated 
from Asia. 

This comparative study of languages, called 
Philology, has proved invaluable in tracing the 
movements and connections of races. It fas 
enabled the scholars of our time to discard many 
fanciful theories and to get much nearer to the 
actual truth. Take the Gypsies for an example. 
For a long time their origin was a puzzle to all 
the world. It was only known, in a general 
way, that thev came from the East about eight 
hundred years ago. Hence they were called 
Egyptians, shortened into Gypsies. Now, by 
the sure clue of language, scholars have been 

lOO 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

able to trace them to a certain district in India, 
whence they migrated. To take an example 
from our own Indians, the same guide, language, 
shows that the ferocious Apaches, of the burning 
southwestern plains, are an offshoot of the Atha- 
pascans, who roam and hunt over the frozen 
wilds west of Hudson Bay. How long the 
two branches of the one stock have been sepa- 
rated we have not any means of knowing, — no 
doubt, hundreds of years. Examples of this 
kind show how the continent was peopled, as 
tribe after tribe wandered ever further and fur- 
ther, in search of more abundant game or water, 
one often coming on the heels of another and 
driving it on. In savage life it requires a large 
area of land to support human existence. Inces- 
sant hunting makes game scarce, and a strong 
tribe drives out a weaker, in order to possess the 
entire hunting-ground. 

Language, then, is a better clue to the origin 
of a people than outward indications, such as 
form and color; and it is on the evidence of 
language that many scholars have ceased to trace 
our Indians to a supposed birthplace in Asia. 
The theory of an Asiatic origin has, however, 
some very strong supporters. (See p. i8o.) 

lOI 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

We have spoken of language as a help. It 
may also be a hindrance. Branches of one family 
that have been separated for hundreds of years 
develop so many changes in their speech that 
new languages arise. French, Italian, Spanish, 
and Portuguese are distinct languages to-day ; 
but all originated in the Latin. Especially rapid 
is the change in a people's speech where there is 
not any writing to give it fixedness. Of course, 
the Indians had not any literature. Besides, 
their tribes were continually splitting, and the 
fragments wandering away to take up their abode 
in some new region. Each of these divisions 
produced a new language, for the separated frag- 
ments would, in time, develop such changes in 
their speech that, should they come together 
again after a considerable number of years, they 
would not be able to understand each other. 
For example, one would not immediately see 
that the first syllable of the words TVf^jjachusetts, 
Mississippi y and AfzV/zigan is the same. The 
original prefix, which means great, has taken a 
different sound among different branches of the 
original Algonquin stock. 

Therefore aboriginal America was fruitful soil 
for the growth of an immense crop of languages. 

1 02 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

Some scholars count not less than twelve hundred 
different native tongues in North and South 
America. Others have reduced the number to 
four hundred. Anybody can see what a great 
obstacle is this fact in the way of those who would 
study the native races. Happily, however, In- 
dian life presents certain clearly marked types 
which do not vary greatly in different fields. 
Besides, a number of zealous students have de- 
voted themselves to gaining a knowledge of the 
aborigines by living among them. For example, 
Mr. Frank H. Gushing, a few years ago, caused 
himself to be adopted into the Zuiii tribe and 
made a careful study of that deeply interesting 
people, throwing a flood of light upon the tribes 
of the Southwest. The writer is acquainted with 
a gentleman of the highest standing in his depart- 
ment of knowledge who for years lived among 
the wild Athapascans of British America, not 
seeing a white face for three years. The patient 
labors of such men have gathered stores of valu- 
able information about various tribes ; while other 
students, like the late Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, 
comparing and classifying these results, have 
drawn valuable conclusions. In this way we 
have, within the past few years, gained more 

103 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

knowledge of Indian life and ways of thought 
than all the generations before us. 

Let us now bear in mind the general conclu- 
sion, that there is and ever has been but one 
American race, and that all existing remains, the 
great earth-mounds of our middle West and the 
sculptured ruins of Mexico and Central America, 
as well as the Cliff-dwellings of the Southwest, 
were reared by men of this race in different 
stages of development. The people who have 
left these monuments of their industry were as 
truly " Indians " as were the Pequots and 
Mohawks. 

The natives of the West India Islands were a 
branch of this one red race which gradually over- 
ran all America down to Cape Horn. That they 
had been established on the islands long before 
the coming of the Spaniards is probable, for they 
exhibited, to a remarkable degree, the influence 
of their surroundings. No doubt they were 
originally a hardy race of savages, but they had 
grown soft and indolent. Living on tropical 
islands, where nature easily furnished sustenance 
for man, where the rivers and the ocean supplied 
an abundance of fish, and where there was an 
absolute lack of large game, they had little of 

104 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

the strength and endurance and none of the skill 
as hunters and ferocity as warriors that marked 
their kindred on the American continent, espe- 
cially in its colder regions, where life was main- 
tained by constant struggle, and hunting and war 
were incessant. Neither had they developed 
anything like that strangely interesting approach 
to civilization which had grown up among other 
kindred peoples, as in Mexico, Yucatan, and Peru. 
Their religious ideas were of the simplest. They 
worshiped no demon-gods and therefore offered 
no human sacrifices. They built no temples, 
nor other great structures, and had no well-de- 
fined organization of society. 

A peaceful, mild, inoffensive race, of pleasing 
countenance and graceful form, needing little 
exertion to maintain existence, they lived their 
easy lives in huts of reeds thatched with palm- 
leaves. They had occasional wars among them- 
selves, and at times they showed remarkable, 
bravery in their resistance to the Spaniards. But 
their general character was peace-loving. Their 
first reception of Europeans was, almost in every 
case, friendly and hospitable ; and, even after a 
bitter experience of the cruelty of the haughty 
strangers, they showed, on many occasions, an 

105 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

extraordinary generosity in sparing and relieving 
distressed Spaniards whom they might easily 
have murdered. We have already seen one 
notable example in the case of Ojeda and his 
companions, who, when they were at the point of 
death in the wilds of Cuba, were succored, fed, 
and tenderly cared for by the inhabitants of a 
native village. Washington Irving, contrasting 
instances of this kind with the pitiless barbarity 
of the Spaniards, truly remarks that the epithet 
" savages " seems to be often applied to the 
wrong persons. 

One exception to this general character of the 
islanders was furnished by the Caribs. This was 
a fierce people which chiefly occupied portions 
of the mainland of South America, but had ex- 
tended itself to some of the West India Islands. 
They were dreaded by the unwarlike natives, 
whom they were wont to carry off as prisoners 
and, it was said, eat at their leisure, and detested 
by the Spaniards, — " not because they ate human 
flesh," however, says a Spanish soldier and poet, 
"but because they defended their homes well." 
This sentence probably furnishes a glimpse of the 
truth. No offence was greater in the eyes of the 
conquerors than resistance. To those who sub- 

io6 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

mitted they granted the right to live, on such terms 
as they dictated. Those who opposed them were 
to be exterminated without pity. So declared the 
official proclamations which they were wont to 
read aloud — unintelligible, of course, to any but 
Europeans — before attacking an Indian village. 
The royal orders which attempted to protect the 
natives to some extent, expressly excepted the can- 
nibals. They were to be destroyed root and 
branch. It was enough to declare a tribe cannibals, 
it mattered not on what hearsay evidence, and it 
might be attacked and slaughtered without giving 
account to anybody. We cannot but suspect 
that the real offence of the Caribs was their indom- 
itable spirit of independence. Cannibals they 
probably were, as were many other tribes in vari- 
ous parts of America. But their unconquerable 
resistance to Spanish rule undoubtedly was their 
unpardonable offence. 

Among the peaceful islanders, who at first 
welcomed them as visitors from a higher world, 
brought them gifts of food, and were ready to 
adore them, the Spaniards came ; and from that 
day forth the relations of these two races formed 
one of the most pitiful pages of all history. 

Now we come face to face with that blighting 
107 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

institution which, like a great upas-tree, spreads 
its poisonous influence over all who breathe its 
air, most over those who imagine that they 
benefit by it. Slavery. It appears early in the 
history of the white race in America. Columbus, 
returning from his second voyage, took home 
to Spain Indian prisoners, who were sold as 
slaves.^ But the idea was not original with him. 
Slavery existed in the world at a period long 
before all human records. There is abundant 
mention of it in the Bible and all the earliest 
books. It was an incident of war. Prisoners 
were made to serve their captors. But in this 
primitive aspect it was fast dying out among 
European nations, when it was revived and took 
a new lease of life in a most revolting form. 
War was now made with the express purpose 
of capturing human beings, enslaving, and selling 
them like cattle. Sad to say, this new develop- 
ment grew up in connection with the modern 
movement of exploration to which the world 
owes so much ; and that high-minded man. 
Prince Henry the Navigator, who paved the 
way for Columbus and all the great discoverers, 
was one of its chief promoters. His ships, 

1 See "The World's Discoverers," p. 70, 
108 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

which were gradually feeling their way down 
the African coast, came home laden with black 
captives, who were sold as slaves in the port 
of Lisbon. 

Such a sale was a novel spectacle, and until its 
strangeness wore away, it moved deep pity. In 
a most pathetic passage an early writer describes 
the woeful scene which he witnessed at the distri- 
bution of a ship-load of negroes brought home by 
one of Prince Henry's captains, — the wretched 
company, with tears in their eyes, awaiting their 
fate ; then husbands and wives separated, parents 
and children sundered, women throwing them- 
selves on the ground, with their little ones folded 
in their arms, " receiving wounds with little pity 
for their own flesh, so that their offspring might 
not be torn from them." 

Yet he justifies such atrocity — on what ground, 
think you .^ In the name of religion! These 
slaves, he says, " as soon as they had knowl- 
edge of our language, readily became Christians ; " 
and this fact he considered to be more than suffi- 
cient compensation for all that they had suffered. 
Of Prince Henry he says that, in receiving " the 
forty-six souls that fell to his share his principal 
satisfaction was in the thought of the salvation 

109 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

of those souls that otherwise were lost." Here 
we have the key of the whole wretched business. 
Men like Prince Henry were not cunning hypo- 
crites, but they were victims of that most baneful 
delusion, that men can further any good cause 
by the same means that advance their own selfish 
ends. They believed that they could serve God 
and promote the spread of religion by acts that 
put money in their pockets, at the expense of 
cruel suffering to their fellow-men. Such was 
the spirit of the age. A more enlightened idea 
of religion and a deeper sense of human rights 
needed to come into the world, ere men could 
learn the falsity of such reasoning. We must 
always bear in mind this fact when we read the 
story of the Spanish conquest. The victors 
believed that they were missionaries of Chris- 
tianity. Pope Alexander the Sixth, in dividing 
the globe between Spain and Portugal, expressly 
laid upon them the duty of bringing its uncivil- 
ized inhabitants within the Church. Therefore 
each Spanish or Portuguese conqueror went forth 
with a firm conviction that he was an ambassador 
of God, offering to the heathen world the un- 
speakable blessing of Christianity, on the simple 
condition of submitting to his king and being 

no 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

baptized. What mattered the thousands who 
were slaughtered in their wicked resistance ? 
They simply went, somewhat earlier than in 
the course of nature, to the Hell to which they 
were surely doomed. The few hundreds who 
submitted and were baptized, brands plucked 
from eternal flames, more than made amends for 
desolated countries and exterminated peoples. 

The theory of Spanish conquest was that, in \ 
the opportunity of becoming converted by serving 
Christian masters, a heathen people received a 
blessing greater than all that might be taken from 
them, — their homes, houses, lands, children, 
liberty — and they really ought to be deeply 
grateful for being plundered and enslaved on such 
terms. If they obstinately refused such a gift 
and remained " infidels," it was doing God service 
to put them out of the way. It was a very simple 
theory and easily put into effect. The Spanish 
sovereigns tried to modify its working by edicts 
that would somewhat shield the natives. But 
every Spaniard in the colonies, from the Governor 
down to the lowest camp-follower — all bent on 
enriching themselves at the Indians' expense — 
worked the bare theory to the limit; and many 
ways were found of getting around the law. 

I II 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

One of these ways originated thus. Columbus, 
when he governed Hispaniola, tried to check the 
encroachments of individual Spaniards upon the 




INDIANS PUNISHED FOR NOT GOING TO CHURCH 



Indians by adopting a system of repartimientos 
(allotments). When lands were granted to a col- 
onist, a certain cacique (chief) and his people were 

112 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

assigned to work them. This was not slavery, 
but serfdom : the people did not belong to the 
white man, but the right to their labor was at- 
tached to his land. A later governor went far- 
ther and introduced a method called encomiendas 
by which the people themselves were given, which 
was virtual slavery. He said to this or that 
Spaniard, " I give such a band of Indians into 
your care, to be instructed by you in religion." 
Of course, this instruction was the merest sham. 
It gave the Spaniard absolute power over the 
poor people committed to him. He might take 
them wherever he pleased, put them to whatever 
work he listed, do with them whatever he would. 
We must remember that, while there were in 
the colonies a few men of high character, the 
bulk of the Spaniards were rude, reckless adven- 
turers, who had little scruple about any deed of 
crime, and to whom the shedding of blood was 
the most agreeable pastime. Imagine, if you can, 
the effect of putting an unarmed and defenceless 
population at the mercy of such desperate villains. 
It did not require a long time for the latter to 
discover that it was cheaper to work an Indian to 
death and replace him than to take care of him. 
Besides, even many Spaniards who were fair and 
8 113 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 



decent in their dealings with white men, treated 
Indians as if the}^ were noxious beasts. The 
Governor who succeeded Columbus, Ovando, 
was a man of high principle — towards white 




CHAMPLAIN'S picture of INDIANS BURNED 

men. Towards Indians he was a treacherous, 
bloody villain. Once he wis hospitably received 
and entertained by a queen, Anacaona, and her 
people. She was the widow of the famous chief, 
Caonabo.^ All the while he suspected that the 

1 See "The World's Discoverers," p. 66. 
114 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

Indians were plotting a massacre. He pretended 
to enjoy loolcing on at their games. Then 
he said that he would show them a tourna- 
ment. Under this pretext, he posted his sol- 
diers. When all was in readiness, and the chiefs 
were gathered around him in his quarters, he 
gave the signal. His men rushed in and bound 
the chiefs. The building was then set on fire, 
and his hosts were burned alive. Later, Anacaona 
was hanged. 

Is it to be wondered at that the wretched natives, 
not a robust race, and unaccustomed to toil, such 
as that of the mines, driven by pitiless task-mas- 
ters, and scantily fed, perished by thousands ? 
Soon the population of Hispaniola was so dimin- 
ished that the master race found it necessary to 
look elsewhere for slaves. Vessels were sent to 
bring them from other islands. The slightest 
resistance or the easy charge of cannibalism was 
sufficient to justify kidnapping. Whole popula- 
tions were hunted down or seized by treachery, 
dragged on board the vessels, crowded into stifling 
holds, and carried away to Hispaniola. Those 
who did not die on the voyage of sickness or a 
broken heart soon perished in the exhausting 
labor of the mines. Continual efforts were neces- 

115 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

sary to renew the supply. Forty thousand 
Lucayans, the peaceful natives of the Bahamas, 
were transported to Hispaniola, leaving the islands 
depopulated. The dastardly slave-catching of 
Ayllon on the coast of what is now South Carolina 
was a type of deeds that were done wherever 
Spaniards went. It would be easy to fill a volume 
with stories of their atrocities. One or two in- 
stances will serve our purpose. Once, when the 
natives had taken arms against their oppressors, 
some Spaniards hanged up thirteen prisoners, " in 
honor of our Lord and his twelve apostles," so 
that their feet barely touched the ground, and then 
amused themselves by cutting and pricking them 
with their swords. On another occasion some 
Indian prisoners were slowly roasted in a sort of 
wooden cage suspended over a fire. The miser- 
able creatures filled the air with their shrieks. 
These disturbed the captain, who was taking his 
afternoon nap in a tent near by. He called im- 
patiently to the subordinate officer to finish 
them quickly. But the latter would not have 
his sport spoiled. He gagged his victims and 
thus still enjoyed the spectacle of their dumb 
agony. 

It is an interesting question. How came the 
ii6 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

Spaniards to be the merciless tyrants that they 
showed themselves in America ? Undoubtedly, 
because they brought to the New World the 
accumulated hatred ot ages against whoever re- 
sisted them and refused their religion. Let us 
remember their national history. In the year 
711 the Arab-Moors entered Spain, and at first 
overran the whole peninsula. Afterwards they 
were slowly driven southward ; but it was not 
until 1492 that they were finally dispossessed. 
During all that long period, nearly eight cen- 
turies, fighting was almost incessant in Spain. Few 
industrial arts were developed among the Span- 
iards. The easiest way to gain the necessaries 
of life was to make raids upon the Moors. Be- 
sides, these wars had a marked religious character. 
The Moors were Mahometans. Therefore a 
Spaniard felt that in fighting them he was fight- 
ing the enemies not only of his country, but of 
God, doomed to eternal perdition and deserving 
death at the hands of a faithful Christian. A 
Moor was, in the eyes of a Spaniard, the most 
detestable being on the fiice of the planet; and all 
the dark races were objects of this antipathy, 
because of the color of their skin. We must 
therefore make allowance for the ferocious 

117 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Spaniard of the sixteenth century. He was 
what eight hundred years of ceaseless struggle 
for his home and his religion had made him. 
We cannot excuse, but we can pitv him, as 
the bloody-minded offspring of centuries of 
violence. 

Had the Indians, then, not a single friend ? 
Yes, they had one ; and his name deserves to be 
held in everlasting honor. It was Bartholomew 
de las Casas. He was a high-born Spaniard, who 
was a lad of eighteen when Columbus discovered 
the New World. At the age of twenty-eight he 
came to Hispaniola with Ovando. He was fair- 
minded and had a great respect for the personal 
character of that merciless man, who, he says, 
was a good governor, but not for Indians. 
Therefore we may be sure that the shocking 
atrocities which he relates were not drawn from 
his imagination, but were actually witnessed by 
him. He was at all times a serious man, and at 
the age of thirty-six he entered the priesthood 
and devoted himself to the service of God. 
Still, at this time, like other Spaniards, he 
had no scruples about owning Indian slaves. 
He and a partner hid a large tract of land 
which was tilled by a batch of Indians who 

ii8 




BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

had been assigned to them, and were quietly 
growing rich. 

His awakening came thus. One day the 
people of San Domingo were startled by a ser- 
mon preached by a Dominican monk, Father 
Antonio Montesino, in which he denounced the 
wickedness and cruelty of his countrymen. The 
rich Spaniards, fattening on the toil of Indians, 
were infuriated at being told that they were no 
better than infidels, and stood no more chance of 
going to Heaven than so many Moors. They 
indignantly demanded that the monk take back 
his words. Instead, on the next Sunday, in a 
church crowded with excited hearers, he declared 
that he and his brethren would refuse confession 
to any man who maltreated his Indians or en- 
gaged in the slave-trade. His words awakened 
a new train of ideas in the mind of Las Casas. 
At first he felt sympathy with the monk, but 
believed that he had gone too far in his whole- 
sale condemnation of slavery. As he went on 
thinking, however, he saw that the root of the 
whole evil lay in the unjust claim of one race to 
take the fruits of the other race's labor. Im- 
mediately he freed his own slaves. From that 
day forth he devoted all the energies of his brilliant 

121 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

mind and all the enthusiasm and eloquence of 
his ardent nature to fighting the battle of the 
oppressed Indians. 

It would be too long a story to sketch the 
work of those tireless years. Fourteen times he 
crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic. He labored 
in public and in private to arouse in Spain a senti- 
ment favorable to the Indians. The slave-owners 
sent over a representative to plead their case 
before the Emperor. Las Casas argued against 
him and won the Emperor to his side. Next he 
gained the Pope. As a consequence, edicts were 
issued mitigating some of the worst evils of slav- 
ery. But the feeling of the Spanish colonists 
was averse to them, and it was hard to get them 
executed. 

Las Casas encountered fearful discouragements. 
Once, in order to afford an object-lesson of the 
right way of treating Indians, he founded a little 
monastery on the Pearl Coast, in South America. 
A rascally Spaniard, who came and kidnapped a 
ship-load of natives, made it appear that the 
monks were implicated in this act. As a conse- 
quence, the Indians attacked and burned the 
monastery, killed some of its inmates, and drove 
away the rest. Undismayed by this seeming iri- 

122 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

gratitude, Las Casas continued his labors for the 
Indians. In Central America was a region called 
Tuzulutlan. It was mountainous and almost in- 
accessible, inhabited by a fierce race who offered 
human sacrifices, and were desperate fighters. 
The Spaniards called this the " Land of War." 
They could do nothing with it. Las Casas had 
announced the principle that the only way to win 
a people to Christianity is by love, not by the 
sword. He further said that he would like to try 
his plan upon the people of Tuzulutlan. The 
Spanish governor smiled to himself, but readily 
agreed. He would be glad enough if Las Casas 
could do anything with these desperate savages. 
An agreement was drawn up that, if Las Casas 
would prevail on them to acknowledge the Em- 
peror as their sovereign, no Spaniards but those 
under his direction would be allowed to go near 
them. He was to have a free hand to work out 
his plan. 

He began by getting hold of some Indian 
traders who trafficked in Tuzulutlan. He made 
friends of them by giving them presents of 
trinkets and beads, such as the Indians loved. 
Then he taught them the gospel story in the 
form of simple verses which he had composed 

123 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

and set to native music. He drilled them until 
they were quite perfect. Then he bade them go 
and sing these songs to the fierce people of 
Tuzulutlan. The traders enjoyed their errand. 
In the evening, when their trafficking was done, 
they sang the story of God's love to man in 
these simple couplets, set to plaintive music. A 
crowd gathered around them. The ferocious 
idolaters were moved. Then the traders told 
them how they had been taught these songs by 
Spaniards who were not like others of their race, 
but were kind and gentle. Amazement followed. 
This experience was repeated day after day. It 
ended by the young chief's accompanying the 
traders on their return, to visit these wonderful 
white men. Las Casas won his heart, and he 
promised submission to the Emperor. Love 
had conquered where the sword had failed. Now 
Las Casas was free to carry out his plan. He 
established himself, with his brethren, in Tuzu- 
lutlan. There they labored so wiselv and so 
well that the fierce pagans turned from their hu- 
man sacrifices to Christianitv, and the dark and 
bloody " Land of War" became a land of peace. 
It was a triumph of love. Nearly four hundred 
years have passed since that day, and still the 

124 



THE NATIVE AMERICANS 

world has not learned the lesson that gentleness 
is mightier than force. But it will learn it in 
time ; else all the travail of the ages has gone 
for naught. 

After some years Las Casas returned to Spain, 
and there continued his labors in behalf of the 
Indians. The result was a gradual improvement 
of their condition. It was a long time before 
slavery was abolished; but he had set in opera- 
tion forces that worked steadily in that direction. 

It has often been said that Las Casas was so 
enthusiastic for the Indians that he was unjust to 
the African race, and advised the importation of 
negroes to do the work that was killing the na- 
tives. This is a partial error. Negroes had 
been imported into Hispaniola before Las Casas 
set foot there. But he did consider that the im- 
portation of negroes was the smaller evil of the 
two, since Africans were a hardier race and 
endured toil that killed Indians; and he so 
expressed himself Afterwards he saw that this 
was a false position, and that to enslave any 
human being, black, red, or white, is equally a 
crime. He deplored the degree to which he had 
sanctioned the African slave-trade, and openly 
took ground against it. 

1^5 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

During the remainder of a long life he labored 
untiringly with tongue and pen for human free- 
dom. When he died the world lost one of its 
truly great men, one of the kind that will be 
admired more and more as the reign of humanity 
succeeds the reign of brute force. 



126 



Chapter VI 

HERNANDO CORTES INVADES MEXICO 



Chapter VI 

HERNANDO CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

How the Spaniards became acquainted with the Coast of 
Mexico. — The early Career of Cortes. — He sails for Mex- 
ico. — The Appalling Magnitude of his Undertaking. — The 
truth about Mexico and its People. Cortes' Summary Way 
of making Christians. — His first Battle. — How he Dealt 
with Discontent among his Men. — He Cunningly makes 
Allies of the People of Totonac — He burns his Ships. 

AFTER Balboa had made his splendid dis- 
covery, and the gold of Darien and the 
> pearls of the Pacific had begun to reach 
Spain, the Spaniards of Cuba turned 
their eyes wistfully to the neighboring continent, 
in the hope of profitable adventure. An expedi- 
tion organized and commanded by Hernandez de 
Cordova sailed in 1517. The first land reached 
proved to be the peninsula of Yucatan. The 
discoverers were amazed to find houses of stone, 
and the inhabitants wearing fine cotton clothing 
and gold ornaments. It was so evident that they 
were far superior to the Indians of the West 
India Islands that the Spaniards indulged the 

9 1-9 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 



fancy that they were descendants of some of their 
own countrymen who, accordhig to tradition, had 
sailed forth from Spain into the Sea of Darkness 
and founded seven cities, — a romantic legend of 
which we shall hear again, and which had an 
important influence in the movement of Spanish 

exploration. Instead of 

^ the naked West Indian 

^^^^^^^^^^^ natives, living in 

huts of reeds, here 
was a highly ad- 
vanced people, 
in regular vil- 
lages. In short, 
the Spaniards were 
now on the soil of 
a rich and splendid 
country, such as Co- 
lumbus had in mind 
when he sailed across the ocean seeking Cipango 
and the empire of the Grand Khan. Everywhere 
were the signs of a strange union of a high degree 
of progress with the most degrading superstitions. 
In a stone temple were hideous female idols. In 
another was an evidence of serpent-worship in the 
form of a huge serpent, forty-seven feet long, in 

130 




JUAN DE GRIJALVA 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

the act of devouring a Hon, all cut in solid stone, 
while the walls and floor were red with the blood 
of victims. Cordova continued his cruise along 
the shore of the Gulf of Campeche. The natives 
were mostly friendly and readily exchanged their 
gold ornaments for worthless Spanish trinkets and 
beads. At one point, however, he found the 
inhabitants determined to resist his landing. Being 
short of water, he tried to force one, but encoun- 
tered fierce opposition and was driven away, with 
the loss of fifty men and with wounds from which 
he died after his return to Cuba. This expedi- 
tion was the first step in the conquest of 
Mexico. 

Cordova's report of his discoveries aroused 
a fever of excitement in Cuba. The existence 
of a great and rich region peopled by races higher 
than any that the Spaniards had yet encountered 
was revealed. The next year a large expedition 
sailed, under Juan de Grijalva, to carry on the 
work of exploration. Avoiding any conflict with 
the natives, Grijalva passed the point where his 
predecessor had his fital fight and reached the 
Tabasco River. Here the natives were mustered 
in force, ready to do battle, but eventually showed 
themselves friendly and brought presents of food, 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

woven mats and blankets, and some golden orna- 
ments. When the Spaniards, always hungry for 
the precious metals, asked for more, the Indians 
readily gave up all they had, and pointing to the 
west, exclaimed, " Mexico, Mexico ! " This was 
the first mention in Spanish ears of that rich 
country. 

Grijalva resolved to continue his exploration. 
Soon the landmarks of the Mexican coast were 
seen, with mountains in the distance, and, rising 
above them, the snowy peak of Orizaba. At a 
convenient place the Spaniards found friendly 
natives waiting for them on the shore in great 
numbers. Here came in a singular circumstance 
which played a most important part in the sub- 
jugation of Mexico. The natives had a god 
named Quetzalcoatl, who represented the Sun. 
He was said to have been driven away by a dark 
god and to have sailed away over the ocean, but 
promising to return with fair companions like 
himself and re-establish his rule. When Grijalva's 
ships appeared on the coast, what would the sim- 
ple natives, who never before had seen ships, 
naturally think but that this was the fair god 
Quetzalcoatl, come back over the ocean in huge, 
winged canoes? They hastened to greet Grijalva 

132 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

and his men as beings from a higher world. 
While a messenger posted off to carry to the 
chief city the wonderful tidings of the pale-faced 
strangers' arrival, the simple natives flocked out 
bringing gifts of food, incense, woven mats, and 
golden trinkets and statuettes. In the six days 
of their stay the Spaniards got gold to the value 
of 1 1 5,000. Never since the discovery of the 
New World had such a piece of good fortune 
befallen a party of explorers, 

Grijalva resolved to pursue his voyage. First 
he sent back a caravel to Cuba under Pedro de 
Alvarado, afterwards renowned in the conquest of 
Mexico, with the treasure he had obtained and 
the news of his great discovery. Following the 
coast, he found temples, altars, hideous idols, and 
the remains of human sacrifices. In one place 
repulsive priests, with wild, unshorn locks, were 
about to offer to the strangers the same worship 
as to their god. But the Spaniards refused their 
homage with loathing. Continuing their cruise 
along the coast, they came to the mouth of the 
river Tampico, where they were fiercely attacked 
by a number of natives in canoes, whom they 
repulsed. It was evident that no more gold was 
to be had, and Grijalva retraced his course and 

133 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

headed tor Cuba. His expedition had achieved 
the second step in the conquest of Mexico. He 
had ascertained the existence of a great and rich 
country. He had also explored its coast and had 
opened friendly intercourse with the natives. But 
when he returned to Cuba he was amazed to find 
another expedition already preparing to go out 
and take advantage of his work. Velasquez was 
so eager to seize the glittering prize of Mexico 
that he was unwilling to wait for Grijalva's return. 
He believed that he had found the right man for 
the work. Could he have foreseen the future, the 
last person whom he would have chosen would 
have been Hernando Cortes. 

This extraordinary man was a born adventurer. 
After a wayward, stormy youth in Spain, at the 
age of nineteen he sailed for Hispaniola. On his 
arrival, he was told that he would have no diffi- 
culty in obtaining a liberal grant of land. " But 
I came to get gold, not to till the soil, like a 
peasant," replied the bold youth. He settled 
down, however, for some years to the life of a 
planter, varying its monotony with an occasional 
duel and with helping to suppress insurrections 
of the narives, thus learning Indian warfare. 

When Velasquez undertook the conquest of 

134 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 



Cuba, Cortes gladly gave up the routine of a 
planter's life and sailed with him. Throughout 
the campaign he distinguished himself by his 
daring and by free and cordial manners and a 
lively wit that made him the favorite of the 
soldiers. 

When the conquest of Cuba was finished, he 
married, received a liberal 
allotment of Indians as 
slaves, with a large 
tract of land, was 
appointed an al- 
calde (magistrate), 
and settled down 
to tilling his fields, 
working his mines, 
and raising stock. In ^^. 
a few years' time he had 
amassed a considerable 
fortune — "at what 

cost of Indian lives God alone knows," writes 
Las Casas. 

Then came Alvarado back from the coast of 
Mexico with the tidings of Grijalva's discoveries 
and with the treasure he had sent. At once 
Cortes was eager to leave the tame life he was 

US 




HERNANDO CORTKS 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

leading ; and Velasquez appointed him to the 
command of the expedition he was preparing. 
Certainly no better man could have been found 
for such a purpose. He was quick-witted, daring, 
and resolute, cool in planning, prompt in decision, 
and swift in execution. Moreover, he was not 
troubled with scruples. If a thing was to be 
done, he asked merely what was the readiest 
way of doing it, and was equally willing to 
employ force or fraud, fair means or foul, truth or 
falsehood. He could be yielding or inexorable, 
forgiving or pitiless, as best suited his purpose. 
In short, he had but one principle — always to 
succeed. 

He threw all his energies into the preparations, 
raised money by mortgaging his property and 
borrowing from his friends, recruited men, and 
attended to the smallest details with keen fore- 
sight. His popularity, together with the report 
of enormous riches in Mexico, attracted a number 
of daring spirits to him, and he soon had a con- 
siderable force. His written instructions were to 
explore the coast carefully, to learn all that he 
could of the customs and habits of the people, to 
barter with them, and, above all, to treat the?n 
always with kindness and humanity^ remembering 

136 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

that the chief object of Spain was their conversion. 
He was to invite them to give in their allegiance 
to the Spanish monarch and to manifest it by 
presents of gold, pearls, and precious stones. 
Nothing was said about conquering or colonizing. 
When the preparations were still incomplete, 
Velasquez repented of having given so much 
power to his aspiring lieutenant and determined 
to remove Cortes from the command. The 
latter got wind of his intention and instantly 
notified his officers to get their men on board at 
once. Everything was hurried throughout a busy 
night; and in the morning the citizens of Santiago 
were astounded to see the squadron lying out in 
the harbor, with canvas loosed. Velasquez, in a 
fury, mounted his horse and galloped down to 
the quay. Cortes entered a boat and came just 
near enough to shout, " Has your Excellency any 
orders?" Then, waving his hand in adieu, he 
rowed back to his ship and hoisted the signal for 
the fleet to make sail. Having got out of the 
Governor's reach, Cortes completed his prepara- 
tions in another harbor and on the 19th of Feb- 
ruary, 1 5 19, finally put to sea. He had one 
vessel of one hundred tons, three of seventy or 
eighty, and several caravels and open brigantines. 

137 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Besides the sailors, there were but five hundred 
and fifty-three soldiers, with two hundred Indians 
of the island. This number included only thirty- 
two crossbowmen and thirteen arquebusiers (mus- 
keteers). The rest must rely on swords and 
lances. There were, however, some small can- 
non, called falconets ; and there were sixteen 
horses. The cost of these amounted to an 
almost fabulous sum, so scarce were they, owing 
to the difficulty of bringing such animals from 
Europe. His banner bore an embroidered cross, 
and he undoubtedly considered himself a genuine 
apostle of Christianity. Strong in this faith, he 
led his little band to invade a continent of un- 
known resources. 

The story of the conquest of Mexico in its 
bare reality is strange enough. Think what it 
was for a force of a few hundred men to march 
into a great and populous country, whose inhabi- 
tants were accustomed to war and swarmed about 
them by thousands ; to fight their way from city 
to city, seize its capital, defend themselves against 
overwhelming hosts, and make themselves mas- 
ters of the country ! It was a most audacious 
undertaking, carried out with equal boldness and 
skill, and its story is full of incidents of the most 

138 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

thrilling interest, when the very existence of the 
daring adventurer seemed to hang on a thread. 
But the pictures of a gorgeous civilization, with 
an emperor, kings, and great nobles ; with lordly 
palaces and sumptuous feasts, like banquets of 
Roman epicures ; and with a general type of life 
very similar to that of Madrid or Vienna, — this 
was a canvas covered with the bright hues of a 
Spanish romance. The truth is far plainer. 

In old Mexico there was a most interesting 
people. It had made remarkable progress in 
social life. Many industrial arts had been highly 
developed, such as spinning and weaving, work- 
ing certain metals, and making exquisite articles 
of feathers. But it was not even a half-civilized 
people. Without sailing-vessels or any craft 
larger than canoes ; without wheeled vehicles, or 
even pack-animals, such as the llamas of Peru ; 
and without roads, other than narrow paths for 
foot-passengers, commerce was unborn ; and com- 
merce is the vital breath of civilization. The 
Aztecs had no printing, such as the Chinese in- 
vented centuries ago ; nor even writing, such as 
the ancient Assyrians had developed thousands 
of years before the Christian era, but, at the most 
a very limited method of conveying ideas by rude 

139 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

pictures. Not one of the great arts in use among 
us to-day can be traced to old Mexico as its 
starting-point. The Aztecs were simply very 
advanced barbarians. Under the cold light of 
modern investigation the " empire of the Aztecs " 
dwindles to a confederacy of tribes ; the opulent 
cities of a gorgeous civilization shrink into prim- 
itive towns, larger and richer than these, but of 
which we can get the best picture from the still 
existing pueblos of New Mexico; and the gilded 
"halls of the Montezumas," with twelve hundred 
rooms in the " palace," fade into great communal 
houses, such as those which we can still see in 
Zuni or Moqui, in which the entire population 
is sheltered under a single roof. 

The first landing ot the Spaniards was made 
on the island of Cozumel. At once Cortes 
" vexed his righteous soul " in seeing the natives 
given over to idolatry. He tried to persuade 
them to become Christians. They refused. 
Then he took a short road. Marching some of 
his men into the great temple, he made them 
tumble the hideous stone images down the steps, 
and set up an altar where Father Olmedo cele- 
brated mass. The simple natives uttered fearful 
lamentations when they saw their venerated idols 

140 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

overthrown, expecting that they would strike the 
daring strangers with thunderbolts. But when 
they saw the sky remain serene, while the poor 
old gods lay helpless on their faces, they declared 
themselves Christians. Having effected this 
quick conversion, with his vessels loaded with 
provisions contributed by the friendly natives, 
Cortes sailed on around Cape Catoche. Coast- 
ing the Bay of Campeche, the Spaniards stopped 
next at the Tabasco River. This region was 
favorably known to the Spaniards as the place 
where Grijalva had driven such a splendid trade. 
Some of his men were with Cortes. As the 
vessels sailed along, they pointed out the various 
localities, and the Captain-general expected to 
do some profitable bartering. But the natives 
seemed more inclined to serve some very hot 
Tabasco sauce than to traffic with the Spaniards, 
and they brandished their weapons threateningly. 
It appears that they had been severely taken to 
task by other tribes for encouraging these intru- 
sive strangers, and they were determined to repel 
them. 

Cortes was equally resolved to make a landing 
and march to their town. He put his main force 
into boats and led it himself while a small party 

141 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

landed out of sight and made a circuit to come 
upon the enemy's rear. The Indians in their 
canoes bravely grappled Cortes and his men in 
their boats. But when the latter leaped out into 
the water, waist-deep, waded ashore, and began 
to use their arquebuses, the flash and roar terri- 
fied them. At the same time the other party 
came charging on their flank. The defenders 
were seized with a panic and fled. When the 
Spaniards came to the town, it was deserted. 
They found houses, mostly of mud, a few of 
stone and lime, some provisions, but very little 
gold. 

That night Cortes took up his quarters in the 
court-yard of the temple, posted sentinels, and 
took every precaution against surprise. The 
silence of the place made him suspect that the 
enemy were rallying for a grand attack. He was 
right. When he sent out a scouting-party, in the 
morning, it was fiercely assailed, pushed back, 
and so hard pressed that he was obliged to hasten 
out to its support. 

It was evident that a great fight was on hand. 
If the Spaniards lost it, the expedition was 
defeated at the outset. Cortes was fearless, 
but he was the reverse of reckless, and he was 

142 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

not willing to take needless risks. All that day 
he kept his men well in hand. Meanwhile 
he sent the wounded back to the ships, landed 
his whole force, together with six cannon, got 
the horses ashore and exercised them after their 
long confinement, and put the infantry under the 
command of Diego de Ordaz. The cavalry he 
would lead in person. Throughout that anxious 
night, the first of many of its kind, he frequently 
visited the outposts, to see that no man slept. 
There is more inspiration in attacking than in 
defending, and he was determined to march out 
and meet the enemy in the field, where his 
horses could be used to advantage, rather than 
await the enemy's coming. 

At early light the gray walls of the heathen 
temple of Tabasco re-echoed the deep voice of 
the Spanish priest chanting the mass and saw 
the little army, with bare heads, fall on its knees, 
with the clatter of swords and armor. Then it 
marched out to smite the infidels. Ordaz was to 
lead the infantry and guns straight toward the 
enemy. Cortes wished to make a circuit with 
his horsemen and fall on their flank. The coun- 
try was low, covered with fields of corn and 
cacao, cut up by ditches and canals for irrigation. 

143 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

But the Spaniards found a narrow causeway, 
over which they dragged their cannon, those 
eloquent missionaries of a warlike Christianity. 
The enemy swarmed on a broad plain, with 
their front covered by marshy fields. As the 
assailants floundered through these they received 
volleys of arrows and stones, which rattled on 
their shields and helmets and wounded many. 
So soon as they reached firm ground, however, 
the cannon and musketry opened and mowed 
down the enemy. But they continued to press 
hard on the pale-faces, coming up again and 
again to the attack. The fighting had lasted 
an hour. Meanwhile where were Cortes and 
his horsemen ? There was no sign of them, 
and the infantry began to be anxious. Suddenly 
there was confusion in the rear of the enemy, and 
the hoarse battle-cry, " San Jago and San Pedro ! " 
(St. James and St. Peter) sounded over the field. 
When the Indians saw the mounted Spaniards 
rushing upon them, the terror of these fearful 
monsters — for they believed horse and rider to 
be one animal — caused a general panic. The 
cavalry careered through their ranks spearing 
right and left ; at the same time the infantry 
charged; and the day was won, — at a cost of 

144 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

two killed and less than a hundred wounded. 
The Indians had lost one thousand, says one 
Spanish writer ; thirty thousand, says another ; 
very probably, several hundreds. "This," says 
Las Casas sarcastically, referring to his country- 
men's express orders to convert the natives to 
Christianity, " was the first preaching of the 
Gospel by Cortes in New Spain ! " 

Cortes followed up his victory by sending 
word to the Tabascans that if they did not sub- 
mit, he would ride over the land and put every 
living thing and every man, woman, and child, 
to the sword. Submission promptly followed 
this convincing message. The Tabascans came 
in timid troops with presents of fruit and flowers, 
with a little gold, and listened meekly to the 
teaching of the new faith in the place where their 
great god had once stood. They also presented 
the conquerors with a number of slaves. One 
of these, a beautiful young woman named Mal- 
intzi, accompanied the Spaniards, who baptized 
her as Marina, in all their future operations, and 
became a conspicuous personage as the secretary 
of Cortes. 

All this was only preliminary work. Cortes 
had his bold eye fixed on the Aztec capital. He 

147 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

re-embarked his men and sailed further along 
the coast. 

The next landing was made on the very spot 
where the modern city of Vera Cruz stands. A 
neighboring chief came to visit Cortes, bringing 
a splendid gift including specimens of exquisite 
feather-work and ornaments of wrought gold. 
The Spanish commander, in sending a shining 
gilt helmet as a gift to Montezuma, the Aztec 
war-chief, intimated that it might be returned 
filled with gold dust, and informed his visitor 
that " the Spaniards were troubled with a dis- 
ease of the heart, for which gold was a specific 
remedy." 

When the Spaniards observed one of the Az- 
tecs setting down in picture-writing a report of 
his observations for his master's use, Cortes 
seized the opportunity of making an impression. 
He ordered out his cavalry and made them per- 
form their evolutions on the beach, to the sound 
of a trumpet. This exhibition, together with the 
flash and roar of the cannon, and the sight of 
the ships swinging at anchor in the bay, did not 
fail to awe the visitors. A full account was sent 
to Montezuma, whose most earnest desire thence- 
forth was to hinder these formidable strangers 

148 



|«|l|f?|i; 






) 












-^ 3 -^ 



^ S q ' 



!:i .s Q : 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

from coming to the chief city. This was the 
subject of negotiation for some time. The Az- 
tec, in the vain hope of buying him off, sent to 
the Spaniard a magnificent present. Alas ! it 
only sharpened his appetite, and he repeated his 
message that he wished to convey in person his 
master's compliments to Montezuma. The 
reply was a positive command not to come 
nearer and to go away as speedily as possible. 
These communications needed to be carried 
all the way back and forth between the coast 
and the city of Mexico by foot-post. In the 
meantime the Spaniards were encamped on the 
shore, enjoying an abundance of vegetables and 
fruit brought to them by the natives. But they 
were in the Tierra Caliente, the sickly coast 
region. The exhalations from stagnant marshes 
produced fevers, the heat was excessive, and 
swarms of mosquitoes pestered them day and 
night. The soldiers became discontented at their 
inactivity. Something must be done to satisfy 
them. Cortes undoubtedly had a clear purpose 
in his mind, but he did not dare to execute 
it without some excuse. He had already gone 
far beyond his instructions. For less than this 
Balboa had lost his life. To march upon the 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

city of Mexico, without any warrant but his 
own will, might cost him his head when the day 
of accounting should come. Besides, there was 
a considerable party among his followers who 
were devoted to Velasquez. In order not to 
make an open breach with them and provoke 
a mutiny, he must do things with a discreet 
show of respect for orders. He pretended to 
yield to the malcontents and gave orders to pre- 
pare to sail for home. 

Immediately there was a great outcry. The 
most of the men were soldiers of fortune, keen 
for adventure and booty, and they had no idea 
of leaving the rich country into which they had 
but peeped, as it were. Besides, the commander's 
most intimate friends had been zealously at work 
In stirring up the soldiers to demand the plant- 
ing of a colony and taking permanent possession 
of the country. Now they clamored, and the 
voices of the Velasquez party were drowned in 
the din. This was what Cortes wanted. It 
shifted from his shoulders the responsibility of 
what might be done. He professed to yield 
to the wish of the majority and to be willing 
to carry out their determination. A colony hav- 
ing been formed, and magistrates appointed, he 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

modestly resigned his office. Of course the 
magistrates did just what was expected of them. 
They recalled him and told him that he was 
chosen to govern them in peace and lead them in 
war, with one-fifth of all the gold that might be 
got by traffic or conquest as his individual share. 
Shortly afterwards he despatched a vessel carrying 
two envoys directly to Spain, to lay a dutiful letter 
before their Majesties, thus entirely ignoring the 
governor who had appointed him. And since 
nothing would be so potent in securing a pardon 
for them all as a plenty of gold, he persuaded the 
officers and soldiers to join with him in giving up 
their individual shares and sending a magnificent 
present, besides the usual royal fifth — practically, 
to bribe the king to overlook rebellion ! 

In exploring the country the Spaniards came 
to deserted villages containing temples in which 
were mutilated corpses of victims sacrificed to 
the gods. In contrast with these hideous signs 
was an exquisitely beautiful region, inhabited by 
a people who showed themselves very hospitable 
and kindly. Soon the invaders were in the 
friendly city of Cempoalla, regaled with all the 
best food it could afford and overwhelmed with 
gifts, including, as usual, gold ornaments. This 

'S3 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

was the country of Totonac, and Cortes was con- 
sidering how to make its people his alHes against 
the powerful Aztecs, when an accident fiivored 
him. Some strangers appeared whom the na- 
tives seemed to look upon with awe. Cortes 
learned that they were Montezuma's tax-collectors, 
come to collect tribute. A brilliant idea came 
to him, and he put it Into immediate execution. 
He stirred up his new friends to refuse the trib- 
ute, to seize the collectors, and bind them hand 
and foot. That night he secretly released them. 
Of course, they hastened back to their master 
incensed against the poor people of Totonac and 
deeply grateful to the friendly Spaniard. 

The people of the country were now embroiled 
with Montezuma and had no choice but to be- 
come allies of the strangers. Cortes, in his pious 
zeal, took advantage of the opportunity of mak- 
ing them Christians, after his summary fashion. 
He called on them to destroy their idols and 
worship his God. It was of no use for them to 
protest that their gods were good enough for 
them. He stated the case to them plainly: Un- 
less they gave up their idols, he would desert 
them and leave them to the vengeance of Monte- 
zuma. What could they do ^ While they delib- 

154 



CORTES INVADES MEXICO 

erated Cortes ordered his men to begin the work 
of destruction. At the sight of the soldiers 
mounting the steps of the teocalh, or sacred 
pyramid, the priests howled, and the warriors 
clashed their arms menacingly. But Cortes 
promptly checked the disorder by arresting both 
chiefs and priests, threatenmg to slaughter the 
whole population, if a single arrow was shot. 
Without molestation, fifty soldiers then pulled 
down the hideous wooden monsters and tumbled 
them down the steps of the pyramid, amid the 
groans and wailings of the faithful. The place, 
gory from human sacrifices, was cleansed and 
freshly plastered ; an altar was erected ; and the 
mass was celebrated, an image of the Virgin tak- 
ing the place of the dethroned deities. 

By this time a site for the city had been found. 
Cortes took his share of the work with the rest ; 
the Indians lent generous help; and within a 
few weeks Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (the Rich 
City of the True Cross) was finished. 

Apparently the place had no attractions, how- 
ever, for some of its citizens. Cortes learned, just 
in time, of a conspiracy to seize one of the ves- 
sels, steal away, and return to Cuba. The hang- 
ing of two, the chopping off of another's teet, 

^55 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

and the whipping of several others must surely 
have convinced every reasonable man that it was a 
very pleasant city to live in. But the incident gave 
a hint to Cortes. So long as the vessels were 
within reach the discontented would try to get 
away. He suddenly became anxious about the 
condition of the fleet and ordered a board of sur- 
vey to examine them. The pilots, who had been 
bribed, duly reported that the vessels were un- 
seaworthy and worm-eaten. Cortes was deeply 
concerned, but ordered them scuttled, and down 
they went. Only one small craft was left. The 
main body of the force was then absent on an 
expedition. When it returned the men were 
furious. Cortes, they said, wished to keep them 
in this country to be butchered. But what could 
they do ? He had acted under color of the law. 



156 



Chapter VII 

CORTES TAKES THE CITY OF MEXICO 



Chapter VII 

CORTES TAKES THE CITY OF MEXICO 

Cortes sets out for the City of Mexico. — Superstitious Terrors 
of the Natives. — Human Victims are Sacrificed to the 
Spaniards. — Brave Resistance of the Tlascalans. — They 
make an Alliance with their Conquerors. — -Cortes Defeats 
the Plot of the People of Cholula to massacre the Span- 
iards. — The Spaniards enter the City of Mexico. — Cold 
Reception. — Cortes makes Montezuma Prisoner. — The 
City rises against the Invaders. — "The Dreadful Night." — 
Long and Bloody Siege of the City. — Its Capture. — Cruel 
Fate of the Aztec Chief, Guatemotzin. 



C 



ORTES was now ready to execute 
his great design of marching on the 
city of Mexico. Leaving a small gar- 
rison at Vera Cruz, he started with 
about four hundred foot, fifteen horse, and seven 
cannon, besides thirteen hundred Totonac war- 
riors, and a thousand porters to drag the guns 
and carry the baggage. He had also forty lead- 
ing men as hostages and guides. The famous 
march took the adventurers first through the 
Tierra Caliente, brilliant with the flowers and 

^59 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

rich with the fruits of the tropics, and then up 
the gradual ascent that leads to the high table- 
land of Mexico. Their route, after the first day 
or two, must have been the same as that by which 
the American army of invasion, three hundred 
and twenty-eight years later, advanced from the 
modern Vera Cruz to the same destination. At 
the end of the second day they were at Jalapa, 
which still retains its Aztec name. A splendid 
prospect lay before them : on the right the dark, 
pine-clad Sierra Madre ; to the south the snowy 
peak of Orizaba; while behind and below them 
spread the rich plain to the distant ocean, which 
many of them might look upon for the last 
time. 

As the road mounted higher and higher the 
air grew colder, and many of the Indians, un- 
protected and unaccustomed to any but the 
warm air of the coast, died on the road. The 
invaders had now reached the high table-land of 
Anahuac, seven thousand feet above the sea-level. 
At a place where they stopped they were received 
as gods, and fifty men were sacrificed to them. 
As was mentioned in the preceding chapter, 
according to Aztec belief there was once a 
gigantic struggle between the fair god Quetzal- 

i6o 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

coatl, god of light, and the dark god, Tezcatlipoca, 
the horrible deity to whom the hearts of human 
victims were the most delightful offering. The 
dark god won and drove the fair god away. But 
when he was departing he said that some day he 



i ^l^fefeJ^ 




A PAGE FROM AN AZTKC BOOK 



would come back with many friends, to dethrone 
the cruel god of darkness and rule the land in 
light. For some reason, the return of Ouetzal- 
coatl was expected about the time that the Span- 
iards appeared. Can we wonder that these pale 
strangers, coming on the coast in their ships, 
II i6i 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

which the natives took to be winged houses 
floating on the water, seemed like visitors from 
another world ? This belief also explains Mon- 
tezuma's indecision. He and his council were 
perplexed. Were these new-comers indeed, Quet- 
zalcoatl and his heavenly warriors, come to rout 
the hosts of darkness ? Those strange monsters 
(the horsemen) seemed to make this probable. 
If so, they must be greeted with every honor. 
Or were they ordinary men of flesh and blood, 
who were to be resisted and killed, if possible ? 
This question perplexed the council of each 
pueblo. We can hardly realize how much the 
dread of the supernatural, of unearthly powers, 
worked upon the fears of this superstitious race. 
No wonder that they fled in terror, and the 
Spaniards came upon village after village entirely 
deserted, while the inhabitants peeped from be- 
hind distant rocks and walls, shivering with fear 
as they beheld those frightful monsters which, 
above, seemed to be men, but went on four legs 
and rushed like the wind. One modern writer 
puts the matter quite strongly when he says that 
the horse overthrew the kingdom of the Aztecs. 
As the Spaniards marched through their land, 
what blood-curdling tales must have preceded 

162 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

them ! In this instance, as human life was 
supposed to be of all things the most acceptable 
to the gods, the elders came out and pointed to 
the ghastly corpses of the fifty victims slain to 
appease the wrath of the heavenly visitors, and 
offered cakes steeped in their blood. 

When the Spaniards reached the territory of 
Tlascala, a warlike people that had successfully 
resisted the yoke of the Aztecs, the same per- 
plexity divided the council. Some were for 
bowing down to them as gods ; others for fight- 
ing them as mortals. The latter opinion prevailed, 
thanks to the valiant chieftain Xicotencal, who 
said that he would lead the army of Tlascala 
against them. Right bravely they defended their 
soil, these dusky warriors — not fifty thousand, 
nor one hundred and fifty thousand, as Spanish 
writers have said, but very likely four or five 
thousand. With their quilted cotton doublets 
and helmets of stout leather, shields of hide, long 
bows, arrows tipped with obsidian (a volcanic sub- 
stance like glass that takes a keen edge), copper- 
pointed lances, slings, javelins, and heavy wooden 
swords with knife-like blades of obsidian set into 
them, they were a formidable host. For two 
days there was fighting, at times furious. The 

i6j 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Tlascalans beset one horseman hard, dragged him 
from the saddle, killed the animal, and almost 
killed the rider before he was rescued. The 
horse they cut up and sent in fragments to vari- 
ous villages, to prove that the monsters were 
vulnerable. The Spaniards lost a few men and 
carefully buried them out of sight. Undoubt- 
edly many would have fallen but for the constant 
attempt of the enemy to take prisoners for sacri- 
fice. No doubt they thought that one of these 
pale, uncanny beings would be more acceptable 
to their dark god than a hundred dusky victims. 
After this repulse the Tlascalans held another 
council. These strangers, said the wise men, 
are children of the Sun. While he is in the sky 
they are invincible. When he is gone, they 
are powerless. Attack them by night. It was 
agreed. But meanwhile, to get all the informa- 
tion possible, spies were sent into the Spanish 
camp, with gifts and honeyed words. Cortes 
suspected them and had them closely watched. 
Suddenly they found themselves seized. Some 
of them confessed. At night-fall Cortes cut off 
the poor wretches' hands and bade them go tell 
their countrymen that, by night or dav, they 
would find the Spaniards ready for them. He 

164 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

followed close on the heels of the maimed mes- 
sengers with his horsemen ; and scarcely had 
they reached their own camp when the Spaniards 
came careering through it, scattering dismay and 
death. 

After these proofs of the invincibility of the 
invaders, the Tlascalans conceded that their wisest 
course was to join them against their ancient ene- 
mies, the Aztecs. A treaty was made, and Cor- 
tes marched on with a large force of new allies. 
Here we see another circumstance that contrib- 
uted greatly to his success — his shrewd policy in 
making one tribe and another his helpers against 
the strong Aztec League. This, with the super- 
stition of the natives, explains the wonder of the 
conquest of Mexico by a handful of men. 

The next incident of note occurred at Cholula, 
a strong pueblo belonging to the Aztec League. 
With the aid of emissaries from Tenochtitlan 
(the city of Mexico), the chief men laid a trap 
for the Spaniards, who were invited into the 
town with the utmost show of cordiality. But 
Marina, the young woman who had accom- 
panied the invaders since she was given to them 
in Yucatan, was an Aztec bv birth, and her 
knowledge of the language enabled her to sur- 

.65 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

mise the plotting of the Cholulan chiefs from 
words which she overheard. She hurried to 
Cortes with the information that the Spaniards 
were to be massacred in the narrow streets. With 
the appearance of having no suspicion, he sum- 
moned the chiefs, told them of his intention to 
march on the next day to the capital, and asked 
for an additional supply of food. This was 
cheerfully granted. That night, while the Cho- 
lulans matured their plans, Cortes planted his 
little cannon where they could rake the streets. 
The next morning he invited the chiefs to meet 
him. They all came, along with those who be- 
longed in the capital city. Then he quietly in- 
formed them that they were his prisoners, and 
that he knew the guilty ones among them. He 
then separated those who had counseled submis- 
sion to him from those who had concerted a 
massacre. At the same time his guns opened, 
ploughing bloody lanes through the dusky mass 
assembled In the square. The Spanish horse 
charged into it, spearing and cutting, and the 
arquebuses and cross-bows did their deadly work. 
The Tlascalan allies, who had been encamped 
outside the town, rushed in and began a general 
massacre. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were 

166 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

slain, among them the head war-chief. When 
the slaughter was ended, several of the leading 
conspirators were burned at the stake. Then the 
victors marched on. 

Now they came in sight of the capital. Says 
the old soldier, Bernal Diaz, who was one of 
those who beheld that fair vision, "When we 
beheld so many cities and towns rising up from 
the water and that causeway, straight as a level, 
which went into Mexico, we remained astonished 
and said to one another that it appeared like the 
enchanted castles which they tell of in the book 
of Amadis. Some of our soldiers asked if this 
that they saw was not a thing in a dream." 

A beautiful picture it was indeed that greeted 
the way-worn Conquistadors, in truth like a vision 
from dreamland. The fair valley of Mexico, fer- 
tile and joyous, spread below them ; in its middle 
a group of gleaming lakes, bordered with cities 
and villages ; in the centre of these proud Ten- 
ochtitlan (Mexico), enthroned on her lake, with 
the cypress-crowned hill of Chapultepec rising 
above it, and on the farther edge of the lake, 
Tezcuco, another populous city. 

For such a vision as this all the explorers had 
hoped and toiled since Columbus first set foot 

167 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

on Guanahami. Truly says Dr. Fiske, "It may 
well be called the most romantic moment in all 
history, the moment when European eyes first 
rested upon that city of wonders. To say that 
it was like stepping back across the centuries to 
visit the Nineveh of Sennacherib or hundred- 
gated Thebes, is but inadequately to depict the 
situation, for it was a longer step than that." 
It brought face to face civilized men and men of 
the Stone Age. 

On the 8th of November the Spaniards found 
themselves on the great avenue leading to the 
capital. Montezuma came forth to greet them 
with dignity and courtesy. He had tried every 
device to keep them away, even to sending them 
a rich present after they had actually come within 
sight of the city, but all in vain. Nothing could 
turn them back, and he bowed to what seemed 
the will of the gods. The fame of the mysterious 
strangers, of their conquering march across the 
country, of the fruitless resistance of the war- 
like Tlascalans, and the terrible slaughter of the 
Cholulans, — this had preceded them; and we 
may be sure that the sixty thousand inhabitants 
of Mexico were eager to see the irresistible in- 
vaders. But no crowd came out across the long 

i68 




o 

(^ 
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;5 

o 

u 

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X 
H 

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CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

causeway to greet them ; and beyond it they 
marched through silent streets. Montezuma 
had issued orders that the people should keep 
themselves within their houses. He meant to 
indicate that this visit was not welcome and 
should be quickly terminated. He did not yet 
realize the matchless audacity of these strangers. 
Think what it was for this handful of men to 
march into that great city. Might it not prove 
a veritable death-trap ? Never was a city better 
contrived for defence. Mexico stood in a salt 
lake. Three causeways of solid masonry four 
or five miles long connected it with the main- 
land. An approaching enemy might be harassed 
on both sides throughout their entire length by 
the Aztecs in canoes. Besides, near the city 
there were drawbridges which might be hoisted 
in a moment, cutting off passage. To all the 
methods of primitive warfare the city was ab- 
solutely impregnable. Had not a more advanced 
race, like the Spaniards, appeared, Tenochtitlan 
doubtless would have maintained her proud 
supremacy for ages to come. Indeed, had a 
fiery warrior been at the head of her councils, 
and had she defied the invaders, it would have 
cost them a greater price in toil and blood to 

171 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

take the city than they could have afforded to 
pay. But superstitious awe secured them a 
peaceful admission which the inhabitants after- 
wards bitterly rued. 

Cortes was as watchful as he was daring. So 
soon as he and his men were assigned one of the 
great buildings for their occupation, he posted 
guards, planted his guns in commanding posi- 
tions, and gave the strictest orders against a 
possible surprise. Within the next few days 
the Spaniards had an opportunity of acquainting 
themselves with this wonderful city, which was, 
after Cuzco, the Peruvian capital, the greatest of 
the New World. It had a peculiar social life of 
its own, almost like that of civilization. Among 
its wonders were the great stone houses, with 
flat roofs, sometimes covered with gardens, each 
sheltering probably two hundred persons. Then 
there were two spacious market-places, where 
the people met to exchange their wares, such as 
various food-stuffs and chocolate-beans, cloths, 
tools, weapons, ornaments, and pottery. But 
most striking of all were the temples, not less 
than twenty. The greatest, the one devoted 
to the worship of the war-god, stood within a 
spacious enclosure surrounded by stone walls, 

172 




MOXTEZL'.MA 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

on a teocalli, or truncated pyramid. It was 
approached by stairs so arranged that a religious 
procession ascending it wound about the pyramid 
four times. On the summit was a block of jasper, 
the great sacrificial stone, on which the priests 
having extended the human victim were wont to 
lay open his heart with one deep slash, tear it out, 
and offer it throbbing to the monster whom they 
worshiped. The whole place reeked with the 
odor of a slaughter-house. So gruesome was the 
religion of a people who had advanced very far 
in social evolution and come very near to the 
lower stages of civilization. 

It soon became apparent to Cortes that some- 
thing must be done to make the Spaniards secure 
in remaining within the city. The inhabitants 
were becoming familiar with the sight of the 
strangers on their streets and would soon lose 
their awe. If once these swarming thousands 
should become aroused to attack them, he and 
his men would find it a life-and-death struggle. 
He determined to paralyze them, as it were, by 
seizing Montezuma, who was both head-chief 
and high-priest. A pretext was soon ofi^ered. 
A chief near Vera Cruz attacked the Spaniards 
left there. These beat him olf", but lost several 

175 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

of their number. The news came to Cortes, and 
he made it a basis of complaint to Montezuma. 
At the same time he suggested that, as a sign 
of his perfect confidence in the visitors, the head- 
chief should take up his abode in the same build- 
ing with the Spaniards. Montezuma saw the 
wily captain's cunning purpose and turned pale 
under his brown skin, but dared not refuse. 
Now Cortes was master of the situation, ruling 
through his prisoner, whom he professed to treat 
with great respect, but who might not even visit 
his temple without a strong guard of Spaniards 
surrounding him. Cortes held the reins with a 
firm grip. Montezuma had sent for the chief 
who had attacked the Spaniards at Vera Cruz. 
When he arrived Cortes burned him at the 
stake, on the public square, along with several 
of his friends. At the same time he sent his 
men around in the city, to the various " dart- 
houses," or armories, collected vast quantities 
of arrows and javelins, piled them around the 
stakes, and burned them in the same flames with 
the unfortunate chiefs. 

All these daring encroachments the Mexicans 
endured patiently, cowed by their superstition. 
So the winter passed quietly. What dauntless 

176 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

men were the Spaniards of that day ! The same 
year (1520) that saw a handful of them in posses- 
sion of the Aztec capital, saw another Spanish 
expedition, under Magellan, break through the 
barrier that had been believed to extend to the 
South Pole, enter the Pacific, and sail boldly on 
in that desperately daring voyage that put the 
first girdle around the globe. 

But there was a limit to the endurance of the 
Aztecs, and thus it was reached. Tidings came 
to Cortes that a great Spanish force was on the 
sea-board. The Governor of Cuba had despatched 
Panfilo de Narvaez with eighteen ships and twelve 
hundred men to arrest the rebellious Cortes. 
He had sent a pigmy to arrest a giant ! What 
mattered it that Narvaez had almost three men 
to every one that Cortes could muster ? The 
stout conqueror left Alvarado, with one-third of 
his men, to hold the city of Mexico, while with 
the remainder he hurried to the sea-board. He 
fell upon Narvaez by surprise, defeated and routed 
him, allured his army to enroll under his banner 
by gorgeous pictures of the wealth of Mexico, 
and actually marched back at the head of the force 
as whose prisoner he was expected to arrive in 
Cuba. But when he reached the city on his 

177 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 



return, he found a state of things that made him 
tell Alvarado that he was a fool. As to what had 
happened on this occasion very diverse opinions 
have been expressed. Some have said that it 
was the season of the great May festival of the 
Mexicans ; that they obtained permission from 

Alvarado to hold it ; and 
that when the gayety 
was at its height, sud- 
denly and without 
provocation this 
treacherous Har- 
ry Hotspur fell 
upon the gay 
crowd and slaugh- 
tered the merry- 
makers without ruth. 

DON PEDRO DE ALVARADO AcCOrding tO OthcrS, 

Indians never dance 
for fun ; the May festival was merely a cloak for 
their deep designs ; the dance was really like the 
ghost-dances of some of our Western tribes, a 
prelude to war ; Alvarado recognized the signs of 
an approaching storm ; and he showed himself a 
prudent soldier by striking the first blow. How- 
ever this may have been, it clearly was too late 

178 




CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

for Cortes' diplomatic methods. His hot-headed 
lieutenant — "Sun-face" the Aztecs called him, 
on account of his fair face and blond beard — had 
kindled a flame that came near to consuming the 
foundations of Spanish rule. After the massacre 
the Indians had driven the little Spanish garrison 
within its fortress and laid siege to it. Alvarado 
had compelled Montezuma to appear and quell 
the disorder. Then came Cortes on the scene 
with his augmented force. He found the city 
full of the signs of war, and they did not abate, 
but rather grew worse. A profoundly important 
change had taken place of which he knew nothing. 
The tribal council, seeing Montezuma still a pris- 
oner, had deposed him and elected his brother to 
fill his place ; for Montezuma was no " emperor," 
as Cortes thought, but only the war-chief and 
high-priest. At once the smouldering fires of 
Aztec resentment burst into a furious flame, for 
now the people had a leader. The next day they 
swarmed on the streets and the neighboring pyr- 
amids and house-tops and attacked the Spanish 
quarters with fury. Many of the defenders were 
slain. Their assailants, undaunted by the havoc 
of the cannon raking the streets, poured in vol- 
leys of burning arrows and set the woodwork on 

179 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

fire. Then Cortes bethought him of Montezuma. 
The wretched captive was made to appear in his 
gorgeous robes of state on the terraced roof, to 
command quiet. Alas ! he could now neither 
command nor persuade. He had ceased to be a 
sacred personage, and while his successor led the 
attack, he was regarded only as a pitiful renegade, 
faithless to his people. His appearance was 
greeted with revilings and a volley of missiles. 
A heavy stone struck him in the head, and he 
fell. A few days later he died, — from the 
wound, said some, but others have hinted, from 
the timely thrust of a Spanish dagger. 

The situation was now so threatening that 
Cortes, fearing lest his army should be blockaded 
and starved, resolved on evacuating the city. It 
was in the night of July the first, memorable 
in the annals of Mexico as the Noche Triste 
(Dreadful Night), that the little army marched out 
silently from its quarters, with cannon and horses' 
hoofs muffled, and, in a rain and intense darkness, 
tried to steal away unobserved. Alas ! hardly 
had it reached the causeway when the deep boom 
of the war-drum — which could be heard, it is said, 
more than fifteen miles — sounded through the 
night, calling the Indians to arms. At the same 

180 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

time the Spaniards could see, by the light of huge 
bonfires suddenly blazing up on the great teocalli, 
thousands of dusky warriors swarming to over- 
whelm them. It was to be a running fight of 
the worst kind, for the Spaniards would be 
hemmed in on the narrow causeway and attacked 
on both sides at once, the enemy having access 
in their canoes to any point in its entire length. 
But, worst of all, the causeway was cut by three 
deep sluices, and the bridges over these had been 
destroyed by the Indians. To overcome this 
difficulty, the invaders had brought along a port- 
able bridge. 

The retreating army consisted of twelve hun- 
dred Spaniards and six thousand Tlascalans. 
The entire force was divided into three com- 
mands. The first was under Juan Velasquez, 
the second under Cortes, and the rear division 
under the intrepid Alvarado. The Spaniards had 
reached the first breach and thrown across the 
bridge, and many had passed over, when a fright- 
ful accident occurred. The frail structure gave 
way under the weight of the horses and guns and 
went crashing down into the gulf with its living 
and struggling burden. Those on the brink 
could not stop themselves from going over, for 

i8i 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

the whole weight of the dense column behind 
pushed them on. Over they went in a frenzied, 
yelling mass, weighed down by their armor and 
smothered by their own numbers, until the chan- 
nel was choked with corpses. The survivors 
floundered across, trampling on the bodies of 
their comrades. Meanwhile the Indians swarmed 
by thousands along the causeway in their canoes 
and attacked the column from end to end, with 
the ferocity of a hate that had long been smould- 
ering. Velasquez, the leader of the vanguard, 
had fallen, and Spaniards and Tlascalans strewed 
the causeway. 

When the second sluice was reached, it was 
found blocked by canoes full of warriors, while the 
sides of the causeway were lined with others. A 
desperate fight took place ere the Spaniards could 
force a passage, and at last the chasm was bridged 
in the same costly manner as the first — with dead 
bodies. Alvarado, wounded and on foot, was 
fighting among the very rearmost, to hold in 
check the furious, yelling Indians pressing on 
their heels. When the sluice was reached, he 
held his ground till the last man had gone over 
and he alone held the pass, like Horatius ot old. 
The current suddenly swept away the ghastly 

182 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

bridge, and he found a sheer gap of eighteen feet 
yawning between him and his comrades. The 
dauntless " Sun-face " planted the butt of his lance 
on the sandy bottom and with a supreme effort, 
weak from wounds and weighted with his armor 
as he was, vaulted over. To this day, it is said, 
the visitor to Mexico is taken to see the spot, 
which is known as El Salto de Alvarado (Alva- 
rado's Leap). 

On the Spaniards struggled until the mainland 
was reached. Then the Indians drew off from 
pursuit, and the survivors had a chance to breathe 
and rest. Daylight dawned on a pitiful remnant, 
five hundred Spaniards — not one without a 
wound — and two thousand Tlascalans. Every 
cannon was lost. The horses had nearly all 
perished. Not a grain of powder was in condi- 
tion to be used. Their armor was battered, and 
their weapons broken. As the tradition runs, 
the stony-hearted Cortes, looking on the wreck 
of his army and, it might seem, of his hopes, 
buried his face in his hands and wept. 

Had the Indians followed up their advantage, 
the exhausted Spaniards would have fallen easy 
victims, and the conquest of Mexico would have 
remained to be achieved by some other than 

183 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

"stout Cortes." But the victors did a character- 
istic thing. They hastened to enjoy their tri- 
umph. As a war-party of Hurons and Mohawks 
would have celebrated their success by torturing 
and burning their prisoners, these more advanced 
barbarians held a great religious festival in honor 
of their war-god, who was credited with giving 
them the victory. From a distance the Spaniards 
beheld sixty of their comrades dragged to the top 
of the gruesome teocalli and butchered on the 
reeking altar. The cannibal feast that followed 
was easily imagined. The ingrained Aztec habit 
of seeking to make prisoners, rather than to slay 
in battle, was all that saved the invading force 
from annihilation on that dreadful night. 

Cortes' discouragement was but momentary. 
He summoned his courage, rallied his men, and 
led them into the country to recruit their strength. 
The news of their disaster spread far and wide, 
and all Anahuac, full of populous villages, rose 
to overwhelm them. Would Tlascala remain 
faithful to its alliance ? If not, the invaders' 
case was hopeless. The question was debated in 
the Tlascalan council. As Indians, the Tlascalans 
would naturally incline to make common cause 
with their countrymen against the domineering 

184 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

invaders. But, as enemies of the Aztec League, 
they would be disposed still to keep to the Span- 
iards. While the matter was in doubt tidings 
reached Tlascala which decided the council to 
stand by the treaty. It was the news of a great 
victory won by Cortes, the invincible. On the 
plains of Otum.ba he had made a stand against 
the hordes of barbarians swarming to overwhelm 
him. He was in a desperate strait. He had but 
seven arquebuses left, and no powder. He must 
rely on steel. Defeat meant death to every man. 
Happily, in the very crisis of the battle, Cortes 
recognized one of the leading priests, or medicine- 
men, by his rich dress. With Alvarado and a 
few others, he cut his way through the mass of 
the enemy and ran his lance through the sorcerer. 
At the same time one of his men quickly sprang 
to the ground and caught up the fallen Aztec 
standard. It was all done in an instant. But it 
turned the tide, and this battle decided the fate 
of the Aztecs. The sight of their high-priest's 
fall sent a panic through the superstitious horde. 
It broke into a rout, and the day was won. The 
loyalty of Tlascala was secured, and Cortes had 
a rallying-point where he might recruit his army. 
He lost no time. Messengers were despatched 

185 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

to Vera Cruz, thence to hasten with the vessels 
taken from Narvaez to Hispaniola, the Spanish 
headquarters in America, for reinforcements to 
save the cause in Mexico. 

The next few months Cortes employed in 
defeating hostile pueblos and making allies of 
all who would join him in humbling the pride of 
Tenochtitlan. By Christmas-eve he found him- 
self at the head of a fine force of Spaniards, newly 
arrived from Hispaniola, besides his veterans, with 
horses and cannon, and several thousand native 
allies. The superstitious awe of the Spaniards, as 
beings of supposed heavenly origin, had vanished; 
but the prestige of Cortes as an invincible warrior 
was firmly established. 

On Christmas-day Cortes marched against the 
Aztec capital. Now began a campaign of which 
Dr. Fiske has well said that it reminds one of the 
siege of Jerusalem. Let any one read, in Jo- 
sephus, the story of that dreadful time, — the 
unrelenting rigor of the Roman general, Titus, 
and the desperate valor of the Jews, throwing 
themselves against the mailed legions, perishing 
by thousands, and still contesting every inch of 
ground, while all the horrors of famine prevailed 
in the doomed city — and he will have a picture 

i86 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

of the scenes that were enacted around and within 
the city of Mexico, 

Strangely enough, when the Spaniards retreated 
from it, they left in the city an unexpected ally, 
which then appeared for the first time on the 
American continent — the small-pox. It had 
been brought in by a negro who was one of the 
force which Cortes took from Narvaez. It 
ravaged the population, and among its victims 
was Montezuma's gallant brother, who had led 
in the expulsion of the invaders. He was suc- 
ceeded as war-chief by his nephew Guatemotzin, 
who proved to be a royally brave soul. But the 
defence suffered a fatal loss at the outset, through 
treachery. Cortes first marched to Tezcuco, 
which lay on the border of the lake surround- 
ing Tenochtitlan. It belonged to the Aztec 
League and was bound to resist him. But the 
chiefs of the two pueblos had quarreled, and 
the war-chief of Tezcuco admitted the Span- 
iards and entertained them. This dastardly 
treachery broke up the league and gave Cortes 
a base of operations immediately opposite to 
Mexico. Undisturbed, he could put together 
and launch thirteen brigantines which he had built 
at Tlascala and had brought over the mountains 

187 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

In sections, without draught-animals, itself a pro- 
digious achievement. 

Four months Cortes spent in deliberate prepa- 
ration. Then, in April, 1521, he began the regu- 
lar siege. Now for eighty days there was fierce 
and bloody fighting. Spanish valor met a desper- 
ate resistance. The invading army, divided into 
three columns, under Alvarado, Olid, and Sando- 
val, attacked the city across the three causeways, 
while the brigantines, with a great fleet of Tez- 
cucan canoes, under Cortes himself, assailed it on 
the water, sinking the Mexican canoes in great 
numbers. The very stars in their course seemed 
to fight against the doomed city. Early in the 
siege the fresh water supply was cut off; and 
hunger began to be felt, since no provisions from 
the country could reach the besieged. But Gua- 
temotzin would not listen to any proposals for 
surrender, and his barbarian forces held out with 
amazing pertinacity against fire-arms and artillery. 
The Spanish guns shattered the great buildings and 
ploughed bloody lanes in the ranks of the defend- 
ers. The streets became heaped with the dead. 
More than once the invaders charged into the very 
heart of the city, but were driven back. Some- 
times some of them were captured. Then their 

188 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

comrades heard the ominous boom of the war- 
drum and beheld the sickening spectacle of their 
wretched countrymen dragged up the long wind- 
ing staircase to the top of the teocalli. 

At last, when the dead lay in heaps, and the 
canals were choked with the ruins of crumbling 
buildings, when the temples were burned, and 
numbers of houses had been destroyed, and 
their inhabitants, men, women, and children, 
slaughtered by the fierce native allies of Cortes, 
the end came. Guatemotzin gave himself up to 
a party of Spaniards. 

" Lead me to your chief," he said. He was 
conducted to Cortes, who was on a house-top, 
watching the fighting. " Deal with me as you 
please," he said. " Despatch me at once." 
Therewith he touched the dagger in Cortes' belt. 
But the Conquistador, for the present, was mag- 
nanimous enough to treat the tallen leader like 
the hero that he was. He entertained him and 
his wife suitably to their rank. 

With the surrender of the war-chief all resist- 
ance ceased, and the Spaniards marched into a 
ruined city. Their first work was to cleanse it, 
to dispose of the dead and clear away the heaps 
of debris that blocked the highways and choked 

189 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

the canals. This done, Cortes turned his atten- 
tion to securing the supposed treasures of the 
"Aztec emperor." The Spaniards, with their 
mistaken ideas of the Mexican government, im- 
agined Guatemotzin to be a monarch possessing 
" crown jewels " and all the paraphernalia of a 
European emperor. In vain the brave young 
chief denied that such things existed. Cortes 
thought him obstinate, and, to his everlasting 
shame, tortured him and the chief of the allied 
pueblo of Tlacopan by putting their feet into boil- 
ing oil. Later, Guatemotzin and two other war- 
chiefs were hanged, on the pretence that they were 
engaged in inciting their countrymen to rebel. 
Malintzi, or Marina, found that not less deadly 
than the sword of the Spaniards was their friend- 
ship, Cortes having compelled her to marry one 
of his officers whom she scarcely knew, whereas 
she loved him devotedly, the wretched woman left 
her husband and went away to the home of her 
childhood, sank into obscurity, and died young. 

The great Conquistador himself experienced a 
reverse of fortune. Superseded in the civil govern- 
ment of Mexico, he went to Spain and was coldly 
received by his master, the Emperor, Charles the 
Fifth, who had received many complaints of his 

190 



CORTES TAKES THE CITY 

excessive cruelty. He could scarcely obtain even 
a hearing. Great titles, enormous wealth, and a 
bride of high birth could not reconcile him to 
such treatment. He retired into seclusion and 
died neglected. 

His successor, Mendoza, "the good Gov- 
ernor," ruled Mexico wisely and well. The 
government set itself against the rapacity and 
cruelty of individual Spaniards. Zealous priests 
took up the work of teaching and converting the 
Indians. Their debasing superstition gave way 
to the benign spirit of Christianity, and they soon 
became as passionately Catholic as they formerly 
had been devoted to the revolting rites of their 
bloody gods. Only ruins, ancient images, and 
the collections in museums recall the demon- 
worshiping, man-eating Mexico which Cortes 
found. To the honor of Spain be it said, her 
rule in Mexico was firm and kind. The Indians 
became thoroughly incorporated into the national 
life, enjoying the same opportunities of advance- 
ment as Spaniards. In the present Republic of 
Mexico the greatest name has been that of Be- 
nito Juarez, the president who upheld the 
national cause during the French-Austrian usur- 
pation. He was of pure Aztec blood. Porfirio 

191 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Diaz, the gallant soldier who led the army of 
the republic during the same trying period, and 
who, as its President, is a model of a strong and 
wise ruler, is also, in part, a descendant of the 
ancient race. 



192 



Chapter VIII 

PANFILO DE NARVAEZ AND CABEZA DE VACA 



Chapter VIII 

PANFILO DE NARVAEZ AND CABEZA DE VACA 

Narvaez sails to conquer Florida. — He lands and marches 
into the Country. — Terrible Experiences. — The Invaders Re- 
treat to the Sea. — Ingenuity in building Boats. — Hunger 
and Thirst. — Off the Mouth of the Mississippi. — Ship- 
wrecked. — Rescued by Indians. — Strange Story of Cabeza de 
Vaca and his Companions. — Enslaved among the Indians, 
then honored as mighty Medicine-men. — Return to Civiliza- 
tion. 

WE have already had mention of one 
Panfilo de Narvaez, who was sent 
by the Governor of Cuba to arrest 
Cortes, and was overthrown and 
taken prisoner by the darnig conqueror. 

After his release Narvaez returned to Spain, 
burning with a sense of defeat and longing to 
wipe out its stigma by a glorious achievement, 
like that of Cortes. He craved the opportunity 
of conquering Florida, and Charles the Fifth 
granted it. The region then called by that name 
embraced all the eastern and southern parts of 

^95 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

the continent from Nova Scotia to Mexico. 
The tract granted to Narvaez stretched from the 
southern extremity of the peninsula to the Rio 
Grande. He made great preparations, and, in 
1528, sailed from Spain with more than four hun- 
dred horsemen and foot-soldiers. From the first, 
misfortune attended the expedition. Strong west- 
erly winds drove the vessels out of their track. 
When land was sighted the pilot assured him that 
he was near the River of Palms (Rio Grande). 
In truth he was somewhere east of the Mississippi 
River. He entered an open bay, probably that of 
Tampa, Florida. Here he landed three hundred 
men and forty-five horses and took possession of 
the country in the name of the Spanish monarch. 
Sending his vessels away, with orders to meet 
him in the harbor of Panuco, Mexico, he started 
inland, undoubtedly expecting to rival Cortes' 
victorious march to the Aztec capital. 

Now began a most disastrous experience. The 
would-be conquerors of Florida dreamed of find- 
ing and overrunning a splendid empire, like 
Mexico or Peru. So confident were they of this 
that they actually set out with but two pounds of 
biscuit and a half-pound of bacon to each man. 

Instead of fertile fields and rich mines, the 
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DE NARVAEZ AND DE VACA 

Spaniards found interminable forests and gloomy 
swamps ; instead of splendid cities, occasional 
villages of squalid cabins. Through this wilder- 
ness they struggled some hundreds of miles, 
almost starving. When they came to Indian vil- 
lages, they outraged the feelings of the natives by 
destroying and plundering their burial-mounds, 
which they mistook for idol-temples. Thus they 
soon had the native population in arms against 
them. Sometimes they journeyed entire days 
through solitudes in which they saw no human 
habitation. At other times they were harassed 
by unseen enemies. There were tangled swamps, 
full of fallen trees, to be traversed, and deep rivers 
to be crossed on rafts, while the horses swam. At 
one place an incident occurred which is related 
by the old chronicler in this quaint way : " That 
night they came to a river so rapid that they 
durst not cross it on floats, but made a canoe, and 
John Velasquez, ventering it ahorse-back, was 
drowned, and his horse, taken out by the Indians, 
was eaten for supper." The pangs of hunger 
were soon added to their misery, for the Indian 
villages afforded, at the best, but a little corn and 
beans. 

Now they had traveled several hundreds of 
197 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

miles, losing men and horses by the way. They 
would have despaired utterly, had they not been 
cheered by the report of their prisoners that in 
the country of Apalachee they would find gold 
and all the things that white men love. Towards 
Apalachee, then, they struggled on, and at last 
reached this land of promise, which was situated, 
most probably, in southwestern Georgia. 

Oh, miserable disappointment! Instead of a 
rich and luxurious city, there was only a rude 
village of some forty cabins. The inhabitants 
fled to the woods and the Spaniards took pos- 
session without resistance. But they were not 
allowed to retain it peaceably. The warlike 
natives were bitterly hostile and hovered around 
by day and by night, seizing every opportunity 
to cut off any unwary soldier. At all events, 
however, there were provisions here, and the 
Spaniards stayed nearly a month, recruiting their 
strength while they consumed the Indians' food. 

Now it was only a question of getting out of 
the country. Their prisoners told them that by 
shaping their course southward towards the sea, 
they would come, in nine days' journey, to Aute, 
where they would find plenty of corn and vege- 
tables and fish. Accordingly, they set out, as 

198 



DE NARVAEZ AND DE VACA 

hungry for food as they had once been for gold. 
It was a frightful march for the starving men. 
There were deep lagoons and miry morasses 
through which they must struggle, with water 
sometimes waist-deep. All the while their way 
was beset by savages, who seemed, as they flitted 
like shadows through the forest gloom, to be 
giants in size, using enormous bows, from which 
they discharged arrows with such force as to pen- 
etrate armor at a distance of two hundred yards. 
At last Aute was reached. The brave inhab- 
itants set it on fire, and the invaders took pos- 
session of the smoking ruins. Happily, they 
found some corn that had escaped destruction and 
were able to appease their immediate hunger. 

How should they escape from this wretched 
country ? The sea was their one hope. A day's 
march beyond Aute, which probably was not far 
from the site of Tallahassee, brought them to a 
river which gradually opened out into a wide 
estuary. Imagine the feelings of the wretched 
band when they smelt the brisk odor of the sea 
and saw the white-capped waves ! We recall 
how the Greek Ten Thousand, on their fimous 
homeward march, after wearily traversing thou- 
sands of miles, when they came in sight of 

199 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

the ocean raised the joyful cry " Thalassa ! 
Thalassa! " 

Now the rashness of Narvaez in plunging into 
an unknown wilderness, instead of keeping in 
touch with his vessels, was evident. There was 
not a sail in sight. And it was no wonder. The 
vessels had been directed to meet him in the 
harbor of Panuco, which he supposed to be near, 
but which, in reality, was distant many hundreds 
of miles. 

In reading the records of the early adventurers 
nothing strikes one more than their resourceful- 
ness in meeting all sorts of difficulties. And now 
it was wonderful to see the ingenuity of these 
Spanish soldiers. Get away they must in some 
way. Cuba was out of the question, but by 
traveling along the coast they might reach the 
settlements of their countrymen to the westward 
(in Mexico), which they fancied to be quite near. 

When the building of boats was first talked of 
it was dismissed as impossible. But what cannot 
ingenuity do, when men are driven to their wits' 
end? First, one man said that he could make a 
pair of bellows with deer-skin. Then they could 
easily burn charcoal. So it would be possible to 
heat and work iron. Everybody's brain was put 

200 



DE NARVAEZ AND DE VACA 

on the rack to devise ways of doing things. Soon 
a forge was going, and the men handed in their 
spurs and stirrups and bridle-bits to be wrought 
by the smiths into tools. When these had been 
made, boat-building began in real earnest. The 
forest rang with the blows of a score of axes, and 
soon the keels of five long boats had been laid. 
Now the work grew fast, from day to day. Mean- 
while, every two or three days one of the horses 
was killed and its flesh was served out to the sick 
and the men who were working. The manes and 
tails were woven into ropes, while the skins were 
cured and made into bags for holding water. The 
men's shirts, cut open and sewed together, fur- 
nished sails. The seams of the boats were 
calked with palmetto fibre, and their bottoms 
covered with pitch made from pine-knots. All 
this work was done almost within bowshot of 
hostile Indians lurking in the swamps and watch- 
ing so keenly that not less than ten men at dif- 
ferent times were killed while gathering shell-fish 
within sight of the camp. 

On September 22, five months from the time 
they had landed in Florida, the boats were 
ready. Though they had lost fortv men by sick- 
ness, besides those whom the Indians had killed, 

201 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

there was still a large number, nearly fifty to each 
boat. Thus laden to within a few inches of their 
gunwales, with the scantiest supply of provisions 
and water, the five uncouth craft started out to 
traverse hundreds of miles, all unknown. They 
had been built without a single ship-carpenter, 
and now they were to be navigated without a 
single sailor. 

The awkward landsmen bent to the rude oars, 
and the ungainly boats bore them from the shore. 
For a whole week they made their way through 
inside passages, without once going into the open 
sea. 

Soon a horrible experience befell the wretched 
voyagers. The water-bags rotted, and for days 
they were without a drop to moisten their parched 
throats. Then, in their agony, some of the men 
drank sea-water. This increased their thirst to 
such a degree that it crazed them, and four died 
suffering horribly. 

This incident determined the leaders to get 
out of the endless net-work of creeks and bayous. 
Out into the open sea they steered. The over- 
loaded boats were buffeted by the waves and 
came near being swamped. But this change also 
brought them relief, for they found themselves 

202 



DE NARVAEZ AND DE VACA 

off the mouth of a great river. To their intense 
joy they found that they could dip up fresh water. 
When they attempted to cross the mouth of the 
river, the strong current swept them out to sea, 
and they could not make land. It is thought 
that this was the Mississippi, which had been 
discovered and named Rio de Espiritu Santo by 
their countryman, Alvarez de Pineda, in 15 19. 
In the darkness the boats were separated, but 
two of them came together again and continued 
their voyage. 

Now came days of weary struggle, as they 
worked along the coast in sight of land, living 
on a daily ration of a half-handful of raw maize. 
The weather, too, had grown cold and inclem- 
ent. One evening the wretched voyagers were 
spent with exhaustion, and many were sinking 
into unconsciousness. Cabeza de Vaca, the 
treasurer of the expedition, whose narrative we 
are following, says of the men in his boat, which 
had become separated from the other, " Among 
them all there were not five men on their feet." 
When dark came, only he and the master were 
able to do anything, and they divided the night 
between them. Near the dawn, when the boat 
was drifting near the shore, her crew huddled 

203 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

together, helpless, benumbed, and almost insen- 
sible, she fell among breakers. A long roller 
seized her and swept her up on the beach. The 
shock aroused the men, and they crawled ashore. 
Soon they had a fire lighted and some maize 
parched, while pools of rain-water quenched their 
thirst. The fire revived their spirits, and they 
began to bestir themselves. One of the strong- 
est climbed a tree and made out that they were 
on an island. The Spaniards called it Mai Hado 
(111 Luck). It was probably on the coast of 
Louisiana. Some persons, however, have sup- 
posed that it was Galveston Island. 

Soon some Indians found them and showed 
themselves very friendly, supplying their wants 
with fish and a kind of roots. Provided with 
food and water, the voyagers determined to con- 
tinue on their way, though the wind was high 
and the sea rough. Scarcely had they pushed 
the boat through the surf, when a big wave 
struck and swung her around. The next cap- 
sized her. Three men were drowned, the rest 
were thrown up on the beach, more dead than 
alive. The miserable wretches lost all they had 
in the world, arms, food, and all else, even their 
clothing. 

204 



DE NARVAEZ AND DE VACA 

It was November and a cold wind was blow- 
ing. Happily, they found embers in the ashes 
of their fire. They blew them into a flame and 
huddled around it. There they sat, in their 
scant wet garments, shivering and emaciated 
almost to skeletons, when their friends, the In- 
dians, re-appeared. They readily understood the 
situation and showed the greatest sympathy. 

They started to escort the Spaniards to their 
village. The latter did not doubt that they 
would be sacrificed to the Indians' gods. They 
undoubtedly got this idea from their country- 
men's experience in Mexico. But even such 
an end they thought would be better than to 
perish of cold and hunger where they were. 
The natives, however, far from being cruel, 
showed them great kindness by making large 
fires along the way, so that the exhausted and 
shivering men could frequently rest and warm 
themselves. On reaching the village, they found 
a large cabin with several fires in it awaiting 
them. 

After their arrival the natives began to howl 
and dance. This lasted throughout the night. 
The Spaniards huddled about their fires, unable 
to sleep, fully believing that this rejoicing was 

205 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

the prelude to their own slaughter. But when 
daylight came, and they were again supplied 
with food, they began to be reassured. To 
their great joy, a few days later they were joined 
by a party of their countrymen from the second 
boat, which had been wrecked at another part 
of the island. 

Meanwhile they wondered what had become 
of the other three boats. They did not know, 
and nobody ever has known. The wretched little 
band whose story we are following were the only 
known survivors of the imposing force that had 
set out, six months earlier, to conquer a new 
empire for Spain. In Cuba nothing was heard 
of the expedition. The entire force, so far as 
was known, had disappeared utterly, and in Cuba 
its fate was a mystery. 

Thus matters stood during eight years. Then, 
one day, some Spaniards on the west coast of 
Mexico, far away from any white settlement, 
looking for gold and pearls and slaves, were 
amazed at seeing a white man approaching them. 
What was their surprise when they learned that 
he was Cabeza de Vaca, once a Spanish noble- 
man and treasurer of Narvaez's expedition ! He 
told a story of vicissitudes that reads more like 

206 



DE NARVAEZ AND DE VACA 

a tale from the Arabian Nights than a record 
of actual experiences. He was followed by two 
white companions, Maldonado and Dorantes, 
and a negro named Estevanico. These four, 
with one other, of whom we shall hear later, 
were the only known survivors of this army 
of conquest. 

Let us take up the story as it was afterwards 
published by Cabeza de Vaca. 

The shipwrecked Spaniards whom we have 
seen gathered in an Indian village on the coast 
of what is now Texas or Louisiana, considered 
what they should do. It was decided that they 
should remain where they were and send four 
of their number in search of the Spanish settle- 
ments, which they supposed to be not far away. 
Shortly afterwards sickness broke out among 
them, and they died so rapidly that they were 
reduced to fifteen. In the meantime the temper 
of the Indians had changed. Food was scarce 
among them, and finding it burdensome to feed 
so many idle men, they broke up the party by 
sending some to the mainland. Of those who 
remained on the island all but two escaped and 
made their way down the coast. The two who 
did not get away, because of being too ill to 

207 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

travel, were Vaca and Lope Oviedo. Unskilled 
to use any weapons but fire-arms, they could 
not serve their masters as hunters or fishermen, 
and so they were made to do the lowest drudgery, 
such as is commonly done among the Indians by 
women. Their time was spent chiefly in digging 
roots which grew under the water. " From this 
employment," says Cabeza de Vaca, " I had my 
fingers so worn that, did a straw but touch them, 
it would draw blood." 

He was so near starving that he was very 
thankful when he had a chance of scraping hides 
for the Indians. The scrapings served him for 
food several davs. Later on he fared better and 
was employed by the Indians to trade for them, 
carrying certain articles which were obtained near 
the sea to the inland and exchanging them for 
others which were abundant there. In this way 
he became acquainted with a considerable part of 
the coast. The one hope that sustained him was 
that of escaping to his countrymen. Oviedo, 
however, was afraid to join him in flight and put 
him off from year to year. Finally Cabeza de Vaca 
overcame his timidity, and they started. After 
crossing four rivers they came to a wide bay. 
Here they heard from some Indians of three 

208 



DE NARVAEZ AND DE VACA 

countrymen who were at some distance beyond. 
But the tales which they heard of the Indians' 
cruelty so disheartened Oviedo that he preferred 
to go back to his former masters. So he disap- 
pears forever from our story. Cabeza de Vaca 
went on alone, and, two days later, met his three 
countrymen. They belonged to the party that 
had escaped from the island six years before. 

The four remained quietly where they were, 
awaiting the time when the Indians would go to 
gather the fruit of the cactus, or prickly pear, on 
which thev hved entirely for three months of the 
year. This occasion, the Spaniards thought, would 
give them an opportunity of escaping. When 
the time came, the Indians, as it chanced, had a 
quarrel among themselves and separated the pris- 
oners. Their hope of escape was thwarted for a 
year, another year of slavery under brutal mas- 
ters. The next season, having successfully ar- 
ranged to elude the watchfulness of the Indians, 
they began their flight. At the first they traveled 
very rapidly, until they were well beyond the 
reach of pursuers. Then they tarried with a 
tribe which treated them kindly. But all the while 
their hearts were set on reaching their country- 
men, and they moved on. The next stage of 

14 ^09 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

their journey brought them to another friendly 
tribe, with whom they stayed eight months. 

Now came a most extraordinary change in their 
situation. They had been miserable drudges, 
existing by the mere tolerance of their masters. 
Now they suddenly were lifted to the highest 
position of influence. It happened thus : The 
Spaniards had scarcely arrived among their new 
friends, when these, believing them to be beings 
of a higher race, asked them to cure their sick. 
They responded by making the sign of the cross 
over the sufferers and commending them to God. 
The patients immediately said that all pain had 
left them, and brought gifts of prickly pears and 
venison. 

The whole camp was at once thrown into a 
fever of excitement. Every one who had a real 
or fancied ailment came to the pale-faced strangers, 
and every one went away believing himself healed. 
It was a case of " faith cure," pure and simple. 
The Spaniards used no medicines nor outward 
remedies, but their mysterious motions and their 
eyes turned reverently to heaven, with their solemn 
words in an unknown tongue, appealed to the 
awe of these simple beings. They did not doubt 
that the pale strangers had mighty influence with 

210 



DE NARVAEZ AND DE VACA 

the gods and could control life and death. We 
have seen among ourselves many instances of the 
power of faith over trusting natures, and we 
know with what superstitious awe the Indians 
look up to their " medicine-men," who are sup- 
posed to be the channels through which the 
unseen powers exert their will. 

Now a bright hope shone before the Spaniards. 
They saw that the mysterious power which they 
were supposed to possess would give them the 
means of carrying out their plans. This great- 
ness had been thrust upon them. They would 
not refuse it. Their fame spread far and wide. 
The natives lavished upon them gifts of food. 
Nothing was too precious to be offered to these 
children of the Sun. From being helpless fugi- 
tives, seeking only to escape with their lives, they 
had suddenly become divine beings, attended by 
hundreds of adoring followers. Their journey was 
a grand triumphal procession through the country. 
The rumor of their coming drew out all the inhab- 
itants to see them. From far and near the afflicted 
were brought to be laid at their feet for healing. 
Once the Indians opposed the Spaniards, who were 
steadily shaping their course towards the north and 
west, whereas the natives wished by all means to 

21 I 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

keep them in their country. Within a few days 
it chanced that several of them died of some epi- 
demic disease. Immediately they ascribed the 
visitation to the displeasure of the heavenly 
strangers and implored them to turn away their 
wrath and not cause any more to die, promising 




THE EARLIEST KNOWN PICTURE OF A BUFFALO 

that they would do anything they were com- 
manded. From that time forth the Spaniards 
directed their course as they pleased. 

So the strange procession moved on through 
tribes speaking many different languages, now 
through arid plains, now through a barren moun- 
tain region where many of the native followers 
died from want. But the best of whatever 

212 



DE NARVAEZ AND DE VACA 

they had was always brought to the divine 
healers. 

In one country which they passed through the 
strangers were loaded with gifts of buffalo-skins. 
They called the people the Cow Nation, because 
they followed the buffalo herds and lived wholly 
on them. Cabeza's is the earliest written descrip- 
tion, and a very queer one it is, of these animals, 
which at that time roamed the plains in literally 
countless numbers. " Hunch-backed cows " the 
Spaniards called them. 

Now they came into a region where food was 
more plentiful and there were fixed habitations 
and cultivated fields. Probably this was in north- 
ern Mexico, in the province of Sonora. Then 
their course took them towards the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia. One day, as they traveled down the coast, 
they saw on an Indian's neck the buckle of a 
sword-belt. How their hearts leaped with joy 
and hope! It was the first sign of the nearness 
of white men that they had seen in eight years. 
They asked about it and were told that it came 
from men who had beards like themselves, and 
had gone south. They soon saw other evidences 
of the recent presence of Spaniards in abandoned 
cabins and deserted villages. The inhabitants 

213 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

had fled in terror and hidden their food, for the 
strangers were slave-hunters. Cabeza and his 
party followed the trail of these men for days and 
at last overtook them, as we have seen. The 
Spaniards furnished guides for him and his coun- 
trymen to the settlements, and so their long wan- 
derings ended. 

When they reached San Miguel it was within 
a little of eight years since they had seen dwellings 
of civilized men. What an experience had been 
theirs, and what a journey they had made ! They 
had roamed over the vast State of Texas and a 
large part of Mexico. They had crossed rivers, 
plains, sandy deserts, and barren mountains. 
Everywhere, though defenceless, they had been 
not only safe, but honored, through the simple 
faith of a confiding people. They were the first 
white men who ever penetrated the vast regions of 
our Southwest, and they gave the first description 
of these countries and their inhabitants. There 
were not a few curious things in their account of 
the manners and customs of the tribes they had 
visited. The most of these things were after- 
wards confirmed. 

Quite as striking as this strange story was its 
influence on the Spanish race, whom it stirred to 

214 



DE NARVAEZ AND DE VACA 

attempt new conquests. Thus Cabeza de Vaca's 
return to civilization opened a new era of explo- 
ration and discovery. He reported that he had 
heard of a country, further north than he had 
gone, where there were wealthy kingdoms whose 
inhabitants were rich in silver and gold and pre- 
cious stones. There were reasons why this tale 
seemed very likely, and we shall see that it had 
a tremendous influence in shaping the history of 
Spanish America and of a portion of our own 
country. 



215 



Chapter IX 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO EX- 
PLORES THE SOUTHWEST OF THE 
UNITED STATES 



Chapter IX 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO EX- 
PLORES THE SOUTHWEST OF THE 
UNITED STATES. 

The Legend of the Seven Cities. — Friar Marcos and the Negro 
Estevanico sent to explore. — The Friar returns and reports 
favorably. — Preparations for Conquest. — Coronado begins 
his March. — Enters Arizona. — Capture of the "Seven 
Cities." — Bitter Disappointment. — The Exploration of Ari- 
zona. — The Grand Caiion of the Colorado. — Acoma, the 
Lofty. — The Enchanted Mesa. — Spanish Atrocities on the 
Rio Grande. — The Quest of Quivira. — Another Disappoint- 
ment. 

IF Cabeza de Vaca's story seemed like a 
romance, its consequences were not less re- 
markable. Who would have imagined that 
the wanderings of four castaways would 
lead to the two most important expeditions ever 
sent out by Spaniards in North America and to 
the conquest of New Mexico.^ But so it was. 

On his arrival in Mexico, Cabeza de Vaca was 
hailed by his countrymen as one risen from the 
dead and quickly furnished with the means of 
going to Spain. There he told his thrilling story 

219 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

and gave a glowing account of the marvels he had 
seen. One point in especial aroused the keenest 
interest. He said that he had been told that 
" there were pearls and great riches on the coast 
of the South Sea (Pacific Ocean) and very opulent 
countries there." He did not claim to have 
visited them. But his story agreed with that of 
an Indian slave in Mexico who had told his 
Spanish master that in his boyhood, accompany- 
ing his father, who was a trader and traveled 
far northwards, he visited seven splendid cities, 
having houses many stories high and entire 
streets occupied by workers in silver and gold. 
These two accounts were more easily believed be- 
cause of an old legend that the Spaniards had 
been wont to hear. Seven Spanish bishops, it 
was said, had left their country when it was over- 
run by the Moors, seven hundred years before 
the time of Columbus, and had taken ship, along 
with their people, sailed out into the Sea of Dark- 
ness, and settled an island where they built 
seven cities. When many ships had crossed and 
recrossed the Atlantic, and still nothing was 
seen of the Island of Seven Cities, the legend 
flitted over to the American Continent. Some- 
where in its vast interior seven splendid cities 

220 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

were imagined to exist. Cabeza de Vaca's report 
of the story he had heard among the Indians 
exactly fitted this legend. Besides, the wealth 
which the Spaniards had found in Mexico and 
Peru gave probability to it. What was likelier 
than that, north of the existing Spanish settle- 
ments, was a kingdom not less rich than those 
which Cortes and Pizarro had conquered ? The 
wildest stories became current as to fabulous 
wealth in those mysterious lands. Numerous 
cavaliers eagerly craved a commission to explore 
and subdue this new land of promise. Francisco 
Vasquez de Coronado was the favored one cho- 
sen by Charles the Fifth for the undertaking. 
He was sent out to Mexico with letters to the 
Viceroy, Mendoza, directing him to organize the 
expedition. 

Mendoza was glad to co-operate, but thought 
it prudent to send scouts to see the country and 
report to him, before incurring the great expense 
of such an expedition. For this service a certain 
monk, Friar Marcos, of Nizza, was chosen, and 
with him was sent as guide a negro, Estevanico, 
who had been one of Cabeza de Vaca's party, 
along with a number of Indians. 

The friar performed his duty to the best of 

221 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

his ability. As he traveled north he noted 
various things that seemed to indicate that a 
land of great wealth was near. But his explora- 
tion was brought to a sudden close by the death 
of the negro. The latter had been sent forward 
from the borders of Cibola (that is, the Buffalo 
Country), as the Spaniards called this region, to 
scout and report to him by messengers. The 
negro, on nearing the first pueblo, was warned by 
the inhabitants not to come nearer, else he would 
be killed. But, relying on the methods which 
he had practised on his tramp with Cabeza de 
Vaca and the awe which he expected to inspire 
as a powerful medicine-man, the audacious fellow 
pushed on, presented himself among the Indians 
of the pueblo, and made the most outrageous 
demands. They answered by killing him. One 
of his attendants, however, escaped and brought 
the news to the friar. 

What should Friar Marcos do ? He was not 
a man of arms, but only a peaceful emissary. He 
could not endure the thought of turning back 
just when he was so near his destination. But 
his terrified followers would go no further and 
even thought of killing him as the cause of their 
misfortune. Finally he succeeded in prevailing 

222 



FRANCISCO VASOUEZ DE CORONADO 

upon two of them to go with him to a point 
whence he could get a distant view of the " City 
of Cibola." 

There it lay, clearly seen through the pure 
air, its terraces and flat roofs sharply cutting the 
sky-line, like the towers and battlements of a 
walled city. The friar gazed and wondered while 
his imagination took a great flight. What royal 
pageants were enacted beneath that stately pile ! 
What treasures awaited the coming of his con- 
quering countrymen ! 

To-day the ruins of Hawikuh, a few miles 
from Zuiii, in New Mexico, cover the spot of the 
friar's vision. And it is matter of curious interest 
to know that to this day, after three hundred 
and sixty years, the tradition of the killing of 
the "black Mexican" — the Zuiii call all people 
from the South " Mexicans " — survives in that 
region. This circumstance shows how, among 
peoples not having the art of writing, memory 
supplies the lack of written records. We can 
understand how the Homeric poems and many 
another treasured piece of the world's literature 
were told by the hearth or sung by the camp- 
fire or recited on solemn occasions, hundreds of 
years before a word of them was put into writing. 

223 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

So the friar turned away, fully believing that 
he had looked upon a splendid city. His mis- 
take need not surprise us. Travelers tell us 
that the light stone and adobe villages of New 
Mexico and Arizona, enthroned upon lofty mesas 
(rock-tables), make a most imposing impression 
of grandeur. Hawikuh has been estimated to 
have contained at that time about one thousand 
inhabitants. Marcos thought it to be larger than 
the city of Mexico, which had, probably, sixty 
thousand. 

On his homeward way he viewed, he says, the 
entrance of a fine valley whose inhabitants, he 
was informed, used gold in making their common- 
est utensils. He summed up his report by stat- 
ing that he believed the country whose borders 
he had reached, more valuable than any that the 
Spaniards had yet conquered. The effect of his 
account upon his countrymen may easily be 
imagined. All New Spain (Mexico) was in a 
fever of excitement. 

At once preparations were begun on a grand 
scale for an expedition that was to conquer this 
land of treasure. Francisco Vasquez de Coron- 
ado undertook the enterprise at his own expense. 
This was a common feature of these early ven- 

224 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

tures. The leader took the command on spec- 
ulation. He put into the enterprise all the 
money he had or could borrow, hired men, and 
fitted out ships. If he failed, the loss was his. 
On the other hand, the chance of becoming rich 
and the ruler of a great province, by a single suc- 
cessful enterprise, proved immensely attractive to 
men of a speculative turn. Commonly, the 
leader engaged his followers on an agreement that 
they were to share in the profits in different pro- 
portions, according to their rank and importance. 
Often men furnished their own equipment and 
paid their own expenses, for the chance of a share 
of the final division. Thus one of these early 
expeditions was a great joint-stock speculation, in 
which the leader was the largest shareholder. 
If it succeeded, everybody was a gainer : if it 
failed, everybody suffered, down to the com- 
monest soldier or sailor. We shall see how this 
principle worked when Cibola was reached. 

The current rumors of the enormous wealth of 
the Seven Cities had created an impression that 
the man who conquered them would equal, per- 
haps surpass, Balboa, Cortes, and Pizarro in the 
treasures they would win for themselves and their 
followers. Coronado was considered the most 

2 27 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

fortunate man of his day in getting the appoint- 
ment. He put all the money he had or could 
obtain into the venture, — 60,000 ducats, it is 
said, equivalent to more than 1 2 50,000 of our 
present currency. Then he started out, deeply 
in debt, but rich in hope. 

Mexico, like the other Spanish colonies, had 
attracted from the old country a throng of dash- 
ing cavaliers who were always keen for adventure. 
They were very useful if there was an Indian in- 
surrection to be put down, but a turbulent 
element in time of peace, hanging around the 
Viceroy's court, brawling, flirting, and making 
trouble. The Viceroy, Mendoza, could not 
treat them roughly, for the oldest, proudest blood 
of Spain was represented among them, and a 
Spanish colony was a poor place for democratic 
ideas. But it was a great relief to him to see 
them departing on this expedition. A brilliant 
cavalcade they formed, as they passed in review 
before him on their prancing steeds, superbly 
caparisoned, with their bright cloaks, glittering 
armor, and gay pennons fluttering from their 
lances. What a contrast to Balboa's little band 
of grim veterans struggling, half-famished, through 
tropical jungles and scaling the mighty Cordil- 

228 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

leran barrier ! The three hundred Spaniards 
were attended by eight hundred Indians. A 
thousand spare horses carried their baggage and 
ammunition ; and large numbers of live sheep 
and swine were driven along to furnish fresh 
meat. Six swivel-guns composed the artillery 
that was to batter the walls of the Seven Cities, 
and four friars, with Brother Marcos at their 
head, were to Christianize the conquered natives. 

The expedition started from Compostella, on 
the western coast of Mexico, on the ist of 
February, 1540. At the same time two ships, 
under Pedro de Alarcon, sailed northward to 
afford assistance to the land force, which was 
expected to be near the shore for a good part of 
the way, and to explore the coast, which was 
still unknown. But, as it turned out, these two 
branches of the expedition did not at any time 
come within reach of each other. Alarcon, how- 
ever, discovered the Colorado River, and as- 
cended it some distance. 

The little army marched northward, encounter- 
ing some difficulty. The Indians were hostile, 
and the Master of Artillery, in a skirmish with 
them, received an arrow through the visor of his 
helmet which pierced his brain. The men had 

229 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

begun to realize that it was not a holiday excur- 
sion, and disquieting rumors circulated among 
them that the report of Captain Diaz, who had 
been sent ahead by the Viceroy to scout, was 
purposely kept secret by Coronado, because it 
was not encouraging. There were angry mur- 
murs against Friar Marcos, who, it was said, had 
grossly exaggerated. On Easter Monday Cu- 
liacan was reached. This was the last Spanish 
post, and the garrison entertained the army of 
invasion with a sham battle and a hospitable 
spread. From this point the real hardships of 
the march would begin. They would soon leave 
behind the fertile valleys of Mexico and enter 
a region ot thirsty plains, with the scantiest veg- 
etation and with scarcely a sign of animal life. 

Coronado seems to have become somewhat 
disquieted, for he started in advance with fifty 
horsemen and the priests, leaving the main body 
to follow more slowly. Let us accompany him 
and his vanguard. We are most concerned with 
his movements after he entered the territory of 
what is now the United States. He found the 
Indians on the route friendly. Thev recognized 
and welcomed Friar Marcos. Coronado entered 
our territory in the southeast corner of Arizona 

230 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

and passed east of the site of Tombstone. The 
Gila River or one of its affluents the Spaniards 
called Rio de las Balsas because, as it was very 
high, they were compelled to cross it on rafts. 
Another river they called Rio Frio, because its 
waters they found cold. Probably this was Salt 
River, They traveled due north, through what 
is now the White River Apache Reservation. 
After they had crossed the Mogollon Mountains, 
they turned northeast, and a few days later 
came to a river whose waters were muddy and 
red. This was the Little Colorado. A few 
miles further they came within sight of the 
first of the Seven Cities ! 

No part of our country so abounds in romantic 
interest as that into which the Spaniards had now 
come. Zuni is the abode of a people who lived 
there centuries before the coming of Columbus. 
There they still live, with very little change. 
The march of progress that has swept away other 
Indian tribes has spared the lonely little pueblo 
communities in their adobe terraced houses, sur- 
rounded by arid deserts. Their poverty has 
been their safety. They have no rich lands, 
no precious mineral deposits, to tempt the greed 
of white men. So they have been allowed to 

231 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

live on in their old way, undisturbed, relics of the 
Stone Age. Locomotives pass within a few miles, 
rushing from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But 
here, in the heart of the American continent, sur- 
rounded by our bustling civilization, the ancient 
world still lives in these solitary villages. 

If we should encounter, in some remote nook, 
a tribe of Indians in ways and habits precisely 
like those with whom Captain Myles Standish 
and Captain John Smith had to deal, or a village 
in Old Mexico just such as those which Cortes 
found, how deeply we should be interested ! 
How eagerly we should study these people who 
would reproduce for us the race with which our 
ancestors came face to face ! This is what the 
Zuiii and Moqui and other Pueblo Indians do. 
They present us a picture of life in many partic- 
ulars just such as it was lived before the con- 
quering Spaniards came. Beneath their Roman 
Catholic religion and their Spanish names, and 
despite their American shirts and rifles and 
frocks, little is changed. They still build the 
same queer community-houses, in one great solid 
block, piled up story above story, like steps, 
with ladders to reach them, and opening at the 
top — the whole village housed in one building 

23^ 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

— a kind of structure evidently adopted as a 
protection against the marauding Apaches. The 
women still put up their hair in the same queer 
rolls drawn over pieces of wood, as the Spaniards 
describe them. They still gather in the long 




RUINS OF CASA GRANDE 



hall before the fire, of a winter evening, and 
spend nearly the whole night in talking over the 
stories that have come down hundreds of years. 
In their underground estufas, or khivas, they 
still practise their mvsterious rites, to which none 
but members of the secret orders are admitted. 
And they still hold their curious heathen festi- 

^33 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

vals, of which the famous " snake-dance " is the 
best known. 

How can we affirm so positively that Zuni 
was the Cibola of the Spaniards ? Because Friar 
Marcos guided Coronado to the " city " where 
the negro Estevanico was killed, and the Zuiii 
traditions preserve the two facts, the killing of 
the " black Mexican " and the conquest ot the 
pueblos by the Spaniards. The identification is 
complete. 

Thus we can readily picture the strange en- 
counter on which the bright autumn sun looked 
down. On one side were the way-worn Con- 
quistadors, in their shabby, dusty habiliments 
and rusty armor, and on their thin, weary steeds, 
looking more like so many Don Quixotes than 
the gay cavaliers who had pranced before the 
Viceroy ; on the other, the astonished natives, 
drawn up, with their rude weapons in hand, 
gazing in wonder on these terrifying monsters, 
which they saw for the first time. The world's 
most advanced civilization was there confronted 
by men of the Stone Age, which Europe had 
left behind many thousands of years. The first 
pueblo, Hakimah, could not turn out more than, 
perhaps, two hundred men. But the entire male 

234 



FRANCISCO VASOUEZ DE CORONADO 

population of the whole group had rallied to 
resist the invaders and was awaiting the Spaniards 
on the plain below Hakimah, which stood on a 
steep hill. Coronado sent a peaceful message. 
They replied with threatening gestures. They 
had drawn a line, just such as they still draw 
with corn-meal in their religious ceremonies, and 
they signified to the invaders that they must not 
cross it. When the Spaniards advanced to it, 
they were met with a shower of arrows. The 
men were eager for the fray, but Coronado still 
wished to avoid bloodshed. The friars joined 
their entreaties with those of the men, the word 
was given, and the horsemen dashed forward. 
At the sight of these strange, rushing figures 
the Indians fled in terror. Still the capture of 
the pueblo was no easy task. As the Spaniards, 
dismounted, struggled up the steep ascent, they 
met a shower of heavy stones, hurled with won- 
derful precision. Several were hurt, and Coro- 
nado, who was a conspicuous object in his shining 
armor, was knocked down and stunned. Within 
an hour, however, the main body of the building 
was in the hands of the Spaniards, and the na- 
tives, still fighting, had withdrawn to the wings. 
Before morning they retired, leaving the Span- 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

iards in full possession of the pueblo. The next 
day Coronado sent a message inviting them to 
come back and live peaceably under the protection 
of his king. They made no other response than 
to come and take away their goods and remove 
them to their stronghold, Thunder Mountain. 
The other pueblos submitted quietly to the 
conquerors, and so the " Seven Cities " were 
won ! 

But what a conquest ! An army had marched 
five months, at enormous expense, through arid 
deserts and over rugged mountains, a distance 
equal to that from New York to Omaha, in order 
that one-fifth of the force might capture, without 
losing a man, seven paltry villages inhabited by 
an inoffensive people, who asked nothing of the 
world but to be left alone to till their corn and 
live as their fathers had lived for centuries ! 
True, the famished Spaniards, after their long 
march, on scant fare, enjoyed the corn and beans 
and turkeys, the only wealth of the Zuni. But 
this could not reconcile them to their cruel disap- 
pointment. In truth, they were dupes of their 
own imaginations, and had chased a phantom as 
mythical as poor old Ponce de Leon's fabled 
fountain in Bimini. But they vented their wrath 

^3^ 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

in bitter curses on Marcos, and the friar's life 
would not have been safe, had he not been a 
sacred personage. 

Coronado's main body reached Zuiii at some 
time in the winter. His entire force was then 
re-united, except two or three detachments which 
had been sent off in different directions, and he 
had under him about two hundred and twenty- 
five men. 

The Pueblo, or village, Indians among whom 
the Spaniards had come, were a people wholly 
distinct from their enemies, the roaming savages 
of the plains, and greatly superior to them. They 
consisted of several tribes, scattered from Moqui, 
in Arizona, on the west, to the upper Pecos 
River, on the east, and along the Rio Grande, in 
New Mexico, for a distance of some two hundred 
miles. They were peaceful tribes, and all lived 
after the fashion already described, in permanent 
dwellings, either of stone or of adobe (sun-dried 
clay), usually perched on a lofty eminence ; and 
they possessed certain rude arts, such as weaving 
cloths and making pottery. They claimed the 
people of Old Mexico as their kindred; and by 
studying the pueblo life of to-day we can prob- 
ably get a truer idea of the higher stage of 

237 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

advancement which Cortes found, than by credit- 
ing the romantic exaggerations of the Spanish 
historians. 

The Cibola of the Spaniards' golden dreams 
was indeed a bitter disappointment. But they 
still hoped that other regions would prove more 
satisfying. They heard of a country to the 
northwest of Zuni, called Tusayan. Accordingly, 
Coronado sent off Don Pedro de Tobar to exam- 
ine it and report. He found a group of pueblos 
quite similar to those of Zuiii, namely, the Hopi 
or Moqui villages still existing in northeastern 
Arizona, and in our time objects of curious in- 
terest on account of the famous snake-dance 
periodically celebrated there. He met with no 
opposition and came back to report that there 
was not anything attractive there, but that he had 
been told of a great river, many days' journey to 
the west, whose banks were inhabited by a race 
of giants. To investigate this statement, Coro- 
nado dispatched a force under Garcia Lopez de 
Cardenas. The little band of horsemen traversed 
the whole width of Arizona from east to west 
and reached the great river. For the first time 
the eyes of white men looked on the most stu- 
pendous wonder of our continent, the Grand 

238 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

Cailon of the Colorado, in the same month of 
August, 1540, in which Alarcon, exploring the 
coast with his vessels, discovered its mouth. 
They gazed in wonder at the river winding like 
a thread at the bottom of the enormous gorge 
whose precipitous side defied them. One daring 
officer, with two agile men, attempted the descent, 
but after several hours came back and reported 
that they had not been able to accomplish more 
than one-third of the distance. The horsemen 
made their weary way back to Zuni empty- 
handed. 

Clearly there was not anything to the westward 
to reward their exertions, and the Spaniards now 
looked to the east. Don Hernando de Alvarado 
was sent in a southeasterly direction, to visit 
inhabited countries of which the Indians spoke. 
His first stopping-place was Acoma, called by 
the Spaniards Acuco. The pueblo occupies one 
of the most extraordinary situations in the world, 
on the top of "a perpendicular rock," says an 
old Spanish chronicler, "so high that a bullet 
could hardly reach the top." An eminent 
modern writer, Mr. Bandelier, thus describes it : 
"Acoma is situated on a rock the shape of which 
resembles that of a spider. The walls of the 
16 241 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

rock fall perpendicularly down for nearly three 
hundred feet, while four winding paths lead to 
the pueblo, none of which has been cut out by 
human hands. Slight improvements, in the 
shape of implanted posts and notches for the 
hands and feet, have been made in a very few 
places. At the summit is the pueblo, with the 
great church of adobe and stone, and the church- 
yard, the soil of which had all been brought up 
on the backs of the inhabitants. Not a foot of 
other loose ground can be found on the gigantic 
cliff; the ten houses stand on the bare rock, 
whence the view down into the yawning depth 
is awful. The six hundred inhabitants draw 
their supply of water, the year round, from the 
accumulations of rain and snow in two deep 
natural cisterns. The cultivated fields are four- 
teen miles away. As evening approaches, as the 
shadows climb up the rock-walls, and as cliff 
after cliff is swallowed up in darkness, the 
visitor's heart is oppressed with the feeling that 
all intercourse with the outer world is henceforth 
cut off; for escape from Acoma in the night 
would be impossible to any one who had not 
lived there a long time. When the last ray of 
the sun has taken leave of the lofty sierra, one 

242 



FRANCISCO VASOUEZ DE CORONADO 

feels absolutely alone, forsaken, helplessly float- 
ing in the darkness of night." 

To this wild and inaccessible situation the fear 
of the marauding Apaches drove the Acomans 
ages ago ; and there their posterity are living to- 
day, in very much the same fashion as in Coro- 
nado's time, but in somewhat diminished numbers, 
for they are a declining race. Alvarado found 
the population at the first disposed to defend 
itself. But, apparently, the fear of the horses 
produced a change of mind, and peace was made. 

An object of very deep interest about three 
miles from Acoma is the Mesa Encantada (the 
Enchanted Mesa). It is a most commanding flat- 
topped rock, rising four hundred feet in a sheer 
precipice on every side from the surrounding 
plain. Its native name is Katzimo. At the time 
when Coronado came the rock of Katzimo was 
bare and uninhabited, and the Acomans were 
living in the same pueblo where they now are. 
Yet, according to their tradition, their forefathers 
once lived on the top of the rock of Katzimo. 
A single narrow trail led up the steep rock, in 
which holes for hands and feet had been pecked. 
Here they were absolutely safe from their ene- 
mies, for a single man might hold an army at 

243 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

bay. But an enemy mightier than man attacked 
them. One day, when the able-bodied men and 
women v/ere all absent, cultivating their corn- 
crop in the valley below, there came one of those 
terrific down-pours which sometimes occur in that 
dry region. When they would have returned to 
their abode, in the evening, they found the trail 
up the clifF blocked by a mass of rock that had 
fallen, as it frequently does at this day. The 
superstitious natives regarded this as an intima- 
tion from the gods that they were to live there 
no more. They abandoned the feeble old folk 
on the top of the mesa to their fate and betook 
themselves to the rock of Acoma, where they 
built their present abode. 

Years and then centuries passed by. Katzimo 
stood deserted and uncHmbed. Strangers came 
and gazed at it in wonder, as the Spaniards did, 
and then went away. The people of Acoma con- 
tinued to look towards it with superstitious awe, 
as it frowned over the plain, and to repeat to 
their children the story of its occupation by their 
forefathers. But nobody had verified the tale. 
In 1896, however, a party of Americans, deter- 
mined to solve the problem of the Enchanted 
Mesa, succeeded in scaling the rock by means 

244 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

of a rope shot from a life-saving mortar. In the 
next year Mr. F. W. Hodge and a party made 
the ascent by using the old depressions in the 
rock, made ages ago for the hands and feet, and 
wooden ladders for scaling two perpendicular 
stretches of about thirty feet each. They spent 
a night on the top and found many bits of pottery 
on the surface and in the talus of the slope. 
Thus, though the surface is now treeless and arid, 
the former occupation is proved, and the Acoman 
tradition is confirmed. 

Leaving Acoma, Alvarado reached the river 
Tiguex (Rio Grande) and the villages bearing 
the same name. Thence he went on still east- 
ward to Cicuye, or Pecos, the most eastern of the 
walled villages. Then he crossed the mountains 
to the buffalo plains. Finding a stream flovving 
to the southeast, probably the Canadian, he fol- 
lowed it a long distance, entered the Pan Handle 
of Texas, and traversed the upper edge of the 
Staked Plain. Many of the " hump-backed 
oxen," as the Spaniards called the buffalo, were 
seen. From Tiguex he had sent back a mes- 
senger to Coronado with a letter praising the 
villages on the Rio Grande as the best that had 
yet been found, and recommending that the 

^45 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

winter quarters for the whole force be estab- 
lished there. Accordingly, the advance guard 
was removed from Zuni to that point. There 
it soon was comfortably housed for the winter. 

But, ah, those comfortable quarters ! To pro- 
vide them, a whole pueblo had been turned out 
of doors, and, still worse, the poor people had 
been forbidden to take away anything but their 
clothes. Thus they were at once deprived of 
their homes and robbed of their supplies of food, 
with winter coming on. Such acts are commonly 
justified in time of war, on the ground of military 
necessity. But here was no war. The inoffen- 
sive inhabitants had received the Spaniards most 
hospitably. It was a high-handed, heartless pro- 
cedure, which was sure to arouse angry feeling in 
the whole region, as it did. Coronado went still 
further in the same oppressive course. He de- 
manded of the Tiguas a considerable quantity of 
cotton goods for clothing for his soldiers. They 
undoubtedly stood in great need of covering, for 
the weather was bitterly cold, and the Rio Grande 
was frozen over, so that it could be crossed on 
the ice, according to the accounts, during four 
months. This demand was followed up with 
measures that were even worse. The pueblos 

246 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

on both sides of the river were ravaged and plun- 
dered, and there were acts of brutal violence the 
perpetrators ot which should have been hanged 
on the spot. 

The unhappy Tiguas rose in a body. They 
had so far overcome their original dread of the 
Spaniards' horses that they seized some of these 
animals. To avert a general uprising, Coronado 
had no resource but to take the field at once and 
crush the movement. The war was short and 
bloody. The Tiguas fought with the valor of 
desperate men defending their homes and families, 
and killed several officers and men. But fire- 
arms gave the invaders an insuperable advantage. 
Many of the natives were shot, and others were 
drowned in the icy river. Two pueblos held out 
stubbornly and were taken only after a long siege. 
The fall of one was followed by the crowning 
infamy of the campaign. In storming the pueblo, 
a number of soldiers had succeeded in climbing 
to the top of the highest building. From this 
position they could fire upon a number of the 
Indians in a court below and called on them to 
surrender. These yielded, on an express promise 
of safety from the subaltern officer on the spot, 
but were afterwards burned in cold blood by order 

247 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

of Cardenas, who commanded in the temporary- 
absence of Coronado, and had given the execrable 
order to take no prisoners. It is not to be won- 
dered at that the Tiguas, after this and other acts 
of cold-blooded cruelty, fled to the mountains, 
and, in spite of Coronado's efforts to regain their 
confidence, did not return to their homes as long 
as the Spaniards remained in the country. 

Long afterwards the Pueblo Indians took a 
bloody revenge. And if treachery be charged 
against them, it must not be forgotten that Chris- 
tian Spaniards had set the example. 

Tiguex, the winter-quarters of the Spaniards 
in 1540-1541, and the scene of these shocking 
occurrences, seems to have been definitely located 
between Algodones and Albuquerque. 

The Spaniards were fated to chase phantoms. 
The Cibola myth had been exploded. Another 
quickly took its place. Alvarado found at Pecos 
an Indian who belonged to one of the tribes 
towards the Mississippi. " The Turk," as the 
Spaniards called him, because he was said to 
look like one, probably was a Pawnee. The 
Pueblo Indians and the eastern tribes often met 
on the plains, whither both went for buffalo-hunt- 
ing. In some way "the Turk" had become 

248 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

separated from his people and found himself 
among the Pecos Indians. He did not like 
them and longed to return to his own tribe. 
But they were hundreds of miles away, and he 
was alone. The coming of the Spaniards fur- 
nished just the opportunity that he wanted. 
He heard their inquiries for gold and saw them 
pushing everywhere in search of it. The bril- 
liant idea came to him that he might induce the 
strangers to visit his country by telling them 
of gold to be had there, and that he might 
travel in their company. He drew a fanciful 
picture of a great and wealthy kingdom and a 
river in which were fish as large as a horse, and 
on which his countrymen sailed in big canoes 
whose prows were of solid gold. At least, so 
the Spaniards understood him. Immediately he 
became a most important character in the Spanish 
camp. He was questioned and consulted, and 
his alleged stories were repeated and exaggerated. 
It was a case of gossip, pure and simple ; and we 
have already seen, in the case of Cibola, how 
much cTOssip can do. Thus Quivira, the new 
land of golden dreams, took the place of Cibola, 
and everybody was keen to start for it as speedily 
as possible. 

249 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

This new hope was surely a great relief to 
Coronado. So far, the expedition had proved 
a dismal failure. Financial ruin and the humil- 
iation of returning empty-handed to New Spain 
stared him in the face. He was eager to start for 
Ouivira and would not listen to his officers, when 
they suggested the wisdom of sending a scouting 
party to verify " the Turk's " tale. On April 
23, 1 541, the march began. The Pecos pueblos 
were passed, and in nine days more the great 
buffalo plains were reached. 

The Spaniards had now traveled thirty-five 
days on the plains, with the usual incidents of 
such a journey. They had encountered herds 
of countless buffalo and had slaughtered them by 
hundreds. Their flesh was the only food, for 
the supplies with which they started had been 
exhausted ; and the excitement of the chase was 
the only relief from the depressing monotony of 
the boundless, treeless plains, on which they 
journeyed day after day, without knowing 
whither they were going. They had met two 
types of plains Indians, probably Apaches and 
Comanches, and these had agreed in telling them 
that there was nothing to the eastward to reward 
them, but there were permanent villages about 

250 



FRANCISCO VASOUEZ DE CORONADO 

forty days' journey to the north. Still, they 
advised Coronado against going thither. Not- 
withstanding, he decided to make the attempt, 
but since the horses were mostly weak from 
travel and chasing buffaloes, to leave the main 
body to make its way back to Pecos, while he 
would push northward with a picked force of 
twenty-nine men and see what he could find. 
He took the Turk with him, but in irons. 

From all the indications it seems that, at this 
time, he was somewhere in Oklahoma. It is a 
singular fact that, about the same date, another 
Spanish leader, Soto, crossed the Mississippi 
from the east. As Mr. Bandelier remarks, had 
Coronado continued his march in an eastern or 
southeastern direction, these two explorers might 
have met. Such an encounter, in the heart of the 
wilderness, entirely without design, would have 
been even more dramatic than Stanley's finding 
Livingstone in Central Africa. 

While the main force journeyed slowlv back 
to the southeast, Coronado pushed on due north. 
He crossed a large river, which can have been no 
other than the Arkansas, and at last reached 
Quivira. 

But again what a fearful disappointment ! 
251 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Instead of a people dwelling in stone houses 
several stories high, they found only a savage 
tribe living in huts and planting maize, while, 
during a part of the year, they hunted the 
buffalo, whose hides furnished their only cover- 
ing. In fact, Quivira was not even such a town 
as one of the pueblos, but only a country 
temporarily occupied by a tribe somewhat more 
fixed in their habits than their roaming neigh- 
bors. It was a fertile region, probably in central 
or eastern Kansas. But of precious metals there 
was no trace. The Spaniards were furiously 
incensed against the Turk. When he was 
called on to account for the lying tales he had 
told, he endeavored to throw the blame on the 
Pueblo Indians by saying that they had engaged 
him to lure the Spaniards into the plains, in 
order that they might perish there. According 
to the Spanish accounts, he put the climax to his 
crimes by trying to stir up the people of the 
country against them. They hanged him on 
the spot. Once more they had been the dupes 
of their own credulity. 

Coronado's homeward march was gloomy and 
was incessantly harassed by hostile Indians kill- 
ing men and horses with poisoned arrows. By 

252 



FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE CORONADO 

the time that he reached the capital, of the splen- 
did array that he had led forth scarcely a hundred 
men remained to follow him. The once popular 
leader was met with reproaches by the Viceroy, 
who justly censured him for giving up the North, 
which he had been sent to hold as a Spanish 
province. He went into retirement and died 
neglected. 

His expedition was a failure, as to occupying 
the new regions, but a splendid success as an 
exploration. It traversed New Mexico and Ari- 
zona back and forth, besides discovering Okla- 
homa, Kansas, and Colorado. " Man proposes, 
but God disposes," says an old proverb. While 
Coronado's little army plunged into the wilder- 
ness, marched thousands of miles, and endured 
hunger and thirst, it left behind it the wealth it 
sought. Almost at its starting-point were dis- 
covered, a few years later, the enormously rich 
mines of Zacatecas, from which whole ship-loads 
of silver were sent to Spain. 



^S3 



chapter X 



HERNANDO DE SOTO SETS FORTH TO CON- 
QUER THE KINGDOM OF EL DORADO. 



chapter X 



HERNANDO DE SOTO SETS FORTH TO CON- 
QUER THE KINGDOM OF EL DORADO. 

The Legend of the Gilded Man. — Soto sets out with an Army 
to seek him in Florida. — Great Difficulty of Learning the 
Truth about this Expedition. — Some Instances of Roman- 
tic Exaggeration. — The Country of Apalachee. — Fer- 
tile Altapaha. — Bushels of Pearls. — Brave Tuscaloosa, 
and his Heroic Stand at Mauvila. — Two Disastrous Fights 
with the Chickasaws. 

WE are now about to sketch the story 
of a second famous expedition that 
grew out of Cabeza de Vaca's report 
of his wanderings. 
When he appeared in Spain telling the story 
of his strange experiences and throwing out hints 
of enormous wealth to be had for the seeking, 
there was in general circulation In Europe a fan- 
ciful legend of a country so rich in gold that Its 
king was completely gilded. It was said that he 
was smeared every morning with gum and then 
thickly sprinkled with powdered gold, which was 
washed off at night. Strange as it may seem, 

17 257 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

scholars now tell us that this queer story had a 
certain basis of fact, and that there was in South 
America a tribe whose chief, on certain solemn 
religious occasions, was covered with powdered 
gold, after which he bathed in a lake which was 
esteemed sacred, this being the customary method 
of making an offering to the divinity supposed to 
dwell in the lake. At first this marvelous country 
was supposed to be in South America, and many 
an expedition plunged into the wilds of Guiana in 
search of the Gilded Man (El Dorado) and his 
golden kingdom. None found him. Then the 
legend flitted over to North America and con- 
nected itself with Cabeza de Vaca's story. It 
became generally believed that the Gilded Man's 
kingdom was somewhere in the vast region then 
called Florida. 

One of those who heard Cabeza de Vaca's story 
with deep interest and connected it with the leg- 
end of El Dorado was Hernando de Soto. He 
was among the most brilliant of cavaliers in those 
festive days when the old city of Seville kept a 
sort of perpetual carnival, filled as its streets were 
with the gorgeous retinues of adventurers who 
had returned from the New World laden with 
the spoils of plundered cities. Among these gay 

258 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 



cavaliers none could vie with Hernando de Soto. 
He had started out, well-born, but with no pos- 
session but his sword, in the retinue of Pedrarias, 
that governor of Darien who unjustly executed 
Balboa. His daring commended him to the 
Governor, and he was allowed to take part in 
Pizarro's expedition to 
Peru. He was giv 
an important com- 
mand, became 
famed for his skill 
and valor, and had 
part in the seiz- 
ing of the Inca, 
Atahualpa, and tht 
taking of Cuzco, 1 
Peruvian capital anc 
richest city of the New hernando de soto 
World. His share of 

the booty is stated at a sum equal to more than 
a million of our money, — and in those days 
millionaires were as scarce as white blackbirds. 
He returned to Spain, married a daughter of 
Pedrarias — the one or the siste-r of the one who 
was affianced to Balboa — and set up a princely 
establishment. 

259 




PIONEER SPANIARDS 

All Spain then rang with the achievements 
of two men, Cortes and Pizarro. Soto would 
fain rival them by conquering the vast region 
which was supposed to contain the Gilded Man's 
kingdom. He asked for and obtained permission 
to undertake the enterprise at his own expense. 
The King appointed him Governor of Florida, 
with power to subdue and rule it. It became at 
once known throughout Spain that the illustrious 
cavalier, Hernando de Soto, was about to under- 
take the conquest of Florida. The enterprise was 
Immensely attractive. No doubt was entertained 
that the plunder would be richer than that of 
either Mexico or Peru. Recruits flocked to the 
standard, high-born and low-born, some of them 
seasoned veterans who had served with Soto in 
Peru. Men of noble birth sold their estates, 
and tradesmen their shops, in order to equip, 
themselves suitably, all expecting to reap a re- 
ward enormously greater than their outlay. 

In due time the old port of Seville saw a splen- 
didly equipped squadron depart, leaving on the 
quay a throng of disappointed aspirants who 
could not find a vacant place on the crowded 
ships. It was more like a monster picnic-party 
than a serious expedition. After a year's delay, 

260 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

spent chiefly in Cuba, where there was a ceaseless 
round of balls and masquerades, bull-fights and 
tiltlng-matches, the force finally departed for 
Florida, where a landing was soon made. The 
merry-makers were destined to a rude awakening. 
Within a short time three hundred were encamped 
on the shore of Tampa Bay, which they called 
the Bay of Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit). The 
first night, as they slept at their ease on the shore, 
without guards — a soldier like Cortes would never 
have dreamed of such carelessness — the solemn 
pine woods suddenly rang with the war-whoop of 
savages, and a horde of naked forms burst upon 
them discharging their arrows and using their 
tomahawks right and left. The terrified invaders 
ran down the beach and out into the water, clamor- 
ously sounding their trumpets for help from the 
ships. It came, horse and foot, in barges, and 
drove the assailants back into the woods. But 
the rude savages had scored the first point in a 
long game that was to be played to a desperate 
finish. 

After this warning the rest of the army was 
landed, and precautions against surprise were 
taken. The Spaniards soon learned why the 
natives had given them such a greeting. This 

261 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

was the harbor where Narvaez had made his 
landing. He had been hospitably welcomed and 
had repaid the kindness by cutting off the chief's 
nose and giving his mother to his dogs to be 
torn to pieces. The village was deserted, and 
Soto made it his headquarters while he explored 
the neighborhood. Then occurred a singular 
circumstance, the capture of a white man. He 
was none other than a lonely survivor of Narvaez's 
expedition. His name was Juan Ortiz. He 
had come to Florida as a lad, had been taken but 
spared by the Indians, through the intercession 
of a chief's daughter, and had since lived with a 
neighboring tribe. He proved invaluable to the 
invaders as a guide and interpreter. 

The fleet was unloaded, the large vessels sent 
back to Cuba, and the caravels kept for the ser- 
vice of the army. Then a garrison was left at 
Tampa, and the expedition set off into the woods 
in a northeasterly direction. It would be unprofit- 
able to attempt to follow its movements closely. 
There is not a single authentic history of the 
march. Several accounts there are indeed ; but 
they are confused as to dates and places, and full 
of childish stories, such as garrulous old soldiers 
told over their cups long years afterwards. For 

262 



MAI' OF DE SOTO S KOUTIi 




I U K ^-tf'ii^ 



FROM GRAVIER'S " LA SALLE 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

instance, we read of a wonderful dog who was so 
intelligent that he could discriminate between 
Indians planning treachery and those whose 
hearts corresponded with their peaceful appear- 
ance. Once, we are told, four young Indians 
who had been visiting the Spanish camp suddenly 
took to their heels. In an instant the brute was 
after them. He passed by the three hindmost, 
seized the leader and pulled him down. Then 
he turned his attention to each of the others as 
he came up, and by leaping from one to another, 
detained the whole four until the Spaniards 
secured them. It is a relief to the reader to find 
this sagacious animal disposed of quite early. He 
came to his end as he swam furiously across a 
creek to attack some Indians, by being shot with 
so many arrows that his head and shoulders looked 
like a great pin-cushion. 

This is a sample of the childish stuff with 
which the old chroniclers filled their accounts of 
Soto's expedition. Some modern painstaking 
writers have tried to sift out the real facts. But, 
interesting as it would be, it is quite impossible 
even to trace the route of the invaders with 
anything like certainty, though there is an old 
map on which the attempt is made. Let us try 

267 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

to follow the outline of facts as nearly as we can 
ascertain it. 

The expedition was pursuing nearly the same 
course as Narvaez had traveled, and its experiences 
were quite similar to his. Interminable pine 
forests, deserted villages, dark and dense swamps, 
where the Indians waylaid the invaders and from 
behind trees harassed and slew them as they 
floundered through deep mire and water, — these 
formed the monotonous routine of the march. 
No gold, no splendid cities ; only an occasional 
village, whose inhabitants had fled into the 
swamps, leaving behind a little corn. But if 
the Spaniards could not find gold, they could 
get slaves. Whenever possible, they captured 
some of the natives, put irons on them, and took 
them along to carry their baggage, pound their 
corn, and serve them in camp. 

The first name that we encounter that sounds 
familiar is Ocali. Probably the Ocala of to-day 
is in the same region. An incident that occurred 
after passing this village gave the Spanish roman- 
cers a royal opportunity for the exercise of the 
imagination. After a battle in which, of course, 
the mailed Spaniards routed the naked savages, a 
number of Indians took refuge in a pond. The 

268 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

conquerors, unable to reach them, surrounded 
the pond, waited until they came ashore exhausted, 
and then captured them. This occurrence is 
dressed up thus: Nine hundred Indians took 
to the water, and, all day long, continued to swim 
around shouting defiance and mounting on each 
other's shoulders to shoot their arrows. Night 
came, and not one had surrendered ; midnight, 
and still not one. At ten o'clock the next day, 
after twenty-four hours in the water, some two 
hundred came out, stiff and cold. Others fol- 
lowed. The last seven would not give up, but 
were dragged out unconscious by the Spaniards, 
who swam in after them, when they had been 
thirty hours in the water without touching bot- 
tom ! Then the humane Spaniards exerted 
themselves to warm and restore them ! 

The next story is a likelier one. It relates that 
the enslaved prisoners in the camp rose against 
their masters and tried to massacre them, and the 
Spaniards, after crushing the attempt, brought, 
each one, his slaves to the square and caused 
them to be hacked to pieces by the halberdiers. 

Passing on to the northward, the Spaniards came 
into a countrv which they called Osachile. Possi- 
bly the Aucilla River preserves this name. Here 

269 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

the conquerors succeeded in ambushing some na- 
tives to serve them as slaves, in place of those they 
had slaughtered. These they led along fastened 
by chains and iron collars to the troopers' belts. 

Soto had heard much of the country of Apa- 
lachee, and when he reached it, he found it fairly 
well tilled, with fields of corn, pumpkins, and 
beans, and defended by a warlike population. 
The Spaniards duly despoiled them of their pro- 
visions and slew them mercilessly, but not with- 
out heavy loss. This region seems to have been 
that of southwestern Georgia, where Narvaez had 
spent some time. A party sent to the south to 
seek the ocean found the site of Narvaez's last 
camp, on the shore of Apalachee Bay, and the 
skulls of the horses on which he and his men 
lived while they built their boats. Maldonado 
was ordered to explore the coast to the west, and 
came back with a report of having found a mag- 
nificent harbor (Pensacola Bay). This was just 
such a spot as Soto sought, a place suitable for 
landing emigrants and establishing a colony. 
Therefore he sent a vessel to Cuba with a report 
of his complete success and with orders for more 
men and horses and provisions to meet him in 
Pensacola in the autumn. 

270 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

Still no gold had been found, and the Gilded 
Man's country seemed as far away as ever. But 
the credulous Spaniards were sure to be fooled by 
somebody. Two lads undertook to guide them 
to a region where they would find gold in abun- 
dance, the land of Cofachiqui. Accordingly, they 
set out to traverse what is now the State of Geor- 
gia in a northeasterly direction, not doubting that 
they would find El Dorado sitting on a solid 
golden throne. The region of Altapaha (central 
Georgia) through which they passed, proved to 
be a pleasant, fruitful country, inhabited by a 
peaceable and kindly people, who entertained 
them hospitably in their villages and furnished 
them generously with food. Soto left his one 
small cannon as a gift to one of the chiefs. Hav- 
ing witnessed its execution against a tree, the 
awe-struck natives no doubt revered it as a god. 
Through this part of the country the chiefs vol- 
untarily furnished guides and porters in great 
numbers, no doubt gladly speeding the parting 
guests on their way ; and the Spaniards had no 
need of resorting to their usual cruel methods. 

At the last halt which the Spaniards made 
before reaching their goal they were cunningly 
imposed upon by a chief. He offered to furnish 

271 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

them guides and porters. So many armed war- 
riors assembled to go with them that the Span- 
iards suspected them of meditating treachery and 
watched them closely. Nothing happened, how- 
ever, until Cofachiqui was reached, when, the vil- 
lagers having mostly fled, and the Spaniards being 
asleep, their dusky friends suddenly fell upon the 
inhabitants and glutted their thirst for blood. It 
was, in fact, a disguised war-party which had cun- 
ningly taken advantage of the Spaniards' escort to 
invade the territory of a tribe of which they stood 
in great awe. 

Under these bloody auspices the gold-hunters 
made their advent in the region of their dreams. 
It has been surmised that they were on the west 
bank of the Savannah River, at a distance of per- 
haps forty or fifty miles below the site of Augusta. 
The golden Cofachiqui lay opposite, on the South 
Carolina shore, where they could see a large vil- 
lage in the woods. This is one of the points 
where the old accounts are stupendously exag- 
gerated. The Spaniards so confidently expected 
to find a land of wonders that they saw marvels 
even in the commonest things. Besides, they 
must invent some tale that would, at the least, 
seem to justify their expectations. Therefore we 

272 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

have a series of most picturesque legends in the 
highest style of Spanish romance. 

What seems to have really happened was, that 
the adventurers crossed the river and found a 
well-to-do people in a fertile region governed by 
a young woman who received the invaders kindly, 




COPPER AND STONE AXES, TAKEN FROM ANCIENT MOUNDS 

furnished them liberally with provisions, and gave 
them some pearls, such as are not infrequently 
found in certain shell-fish living in fresh-water 
streams. It is known that the Southern Indians 
possessed considerable quantities of them. Thou- 
sands have been found in the Mounds, usually 
spoiled by fire or by being drilled. This was all 
the wealth the Spaniards obtained. Of gold and 
IS 273 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

silver there was absolutely none. Therefore, they 
marched away in chase of some other will-o'-the- 
wisp. 

But this would have been a too commonplace 
tale to serve as the sequel of their long march. 
Therefore we are told of a " princess " who re- 
ceived them with royal state, wearing a string of 
pearls as big as hazel-nuts, gave up to them her 
own dwelling and stores of corn, and led them 
into a " temple " where they saw bushels of 
pearls, and were invited to carry away all that 
they could. But Soto was not willing to take 
more than fifty pounds, as a sample ! 

It is little wonder that Soto was so surfeited 
with the sight of pearls that he resisted all the 
entreaties of his officers that he would make a 
settlement in this Arabian Nights land, and said 
he would go on in search of a richer country ; if 
he failed to find one, it would be easy enough to 
come back. But the Spaniards never returned to 
this land of enchantment. Off they went, driving 
their herd of hogs, leaving behind — if their story 
be true — wealth that would have enabled every 
one of them to live like a lord the rest of his life. 
They did not, however, abandon the " princess " to 
consume her days in grieving for the chivalrous 

274 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

strangers. They took her along but, sad to 
relate, as a prisoner, walking under guard with 
her " attendant ladies." The captive party, hap- 
pily, managed to escape before long. 

We shall not follow the roaming marauders in 
their westward wanderings, through upper Geor- 
gia, across the mountains, and, possibly, into 
lower Tennessee, always seeking what they would 
never find. They met their Waterloo in Ala- 
bama. Their Wellington was a fine Choctaw 
chief named Tuscaloosa, which means Black 
Warrior. A city and a river of Alabama keep 
alive the memory of this brave defender of his 
country, who gave the first check to the insolent 
invaders who for two years had ravaged, maimed, 
and slain at pleasure. 

They were heading for Pensacola, where vessels 
from Cuba were expected to meet them with rein- 
forcements and supplies, when they came to Tus- 
caloosa's town, named Mauvila. It is supposed 
to have stood on the north bank of the Alabama, 
at a place called Choctaw Bluff, situated about 
twenty-five miles above its confluence with the 
Tombigbee, and therefore not very far from the 
bay and city of Mobile, which perpetuate its name. 
It was one of the best examples of Indian fortifi- 

275 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

cation, being surrounded by a high paHsade which 
had but two narrow entrances, at opposite points, 
and was chinked and plastered with mud, so that 
it formed an impervious wall. In it were slits for 
the defenders to shoot through. 

The Spanish vanguard, of one hundred horse- 
men under Soto, reached this place, along with 
the chief Tuscaloosa, leaving the main body to 
come along at its leisure. Almost immediately 
an affray took place. The Spaniards claim that 
they were drawn into the place with the express 
purpose of slaughtering them ; that thousands 
of warriors had been summoned from all the sur- 
rounding country ; and that they were attacked 
unexpectedly. This does not look probable, 
chiefly because there were hundreds of women 
in the place, and these would certainly have 
been removed, if such a plan had been enter- 
tained. It is certain, too, that the first blow was 
struck by a Spaniard, and that the first thing 
done by the Indians was to drive the intruders 
out of the palisade. This looks as if the trouble 
began with some aggression of the insolent 
strangers, and that the inhabitants sought merely 
to put them out of the town. 

The affray instantly grew into a fierce battle. 
276 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

The Indians swarmed out of their houses and 
swept the Spaniards before them through the 
narrow entrance. Outside, some of these suc- 
ceeded in reaching and mounting their horses, 
some cutting the reins in their desperate haste ; 
others were not able to reach theirs, but saw the 
animals stuck full of arrows. Driven to a dis- 
tance, the Spaniards formed a line and came back, 
pressing the Indians before them. But so soon 
as they came under the palisade, they met a so 
terrific shower of stones and arrows pelting their 
helmets and penetrating any exposed part of the 
body, that they fell back to a distance, only to 
renew the attempt. For hours the line surged 
back and forth, the Indians breasting the charge 
of the mailed and mounted Spaniards and meeting 
their keen lances with splendid courage. Soto 
was at the first on foot, but seized a horse and 
led his men, using his lance with terrible effect. 
Once, as he leaned forward to give more effect to 
his thrust, he received an arrow in the exposed 
portion of the thigh. This hindered him from 
sitting, and throughout the remainder of the day 
he rode standing in his stirrups. The Indians, 
fighting at short range, drove their arrows into 
the faces of the Spaniards or into exposed parts 

277 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

of the body with splendid marksmanship and 
deadly effect. Carlos Enriquez, a young cava- 
lier who had married Soto's niece, at the end of a 
charge leaned over his horse's neck to pull out 
an arrow from the animal's breast. He exposed 
his throat, and instantly an Indian marksman 
shot him dead. His brother-in-law, Diego de 
Soto, eager to avenge his death, leaped from his 
horse and rushed into the thick of the fray 
where the fighting was hand-to-hand. An arrow 
pierced his eye and came out at the back of 
his neck. 

In the meantime, while their comrades, hard 
pressed, were blowing trumpets to summon help, 
the main body was jogging along at its leisure. 
In the afternoon, as it neared the town, those 
who were riding ahead heard trumpets and saw a 
dense volume of smoke, for the Spaniards had 
cut breaches in the mud wall, clambered over, 
and set fire to the straw roofs. They sent word 
back to the main column to hasten forward, then 
spurred on. Thus the main body came up in 
little squads, and soon the Spaniards were numer- 
ous enough to surround the enclosure and cut off 
escape, while some of their comrades fought 
within, Soto and others charging between the 

278 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

burning houses and plying lance and sword right 
and left. 

The horror of the scene is more easily imag- 
ined than described, — the glare, the stifling 
smoke and fierce heat ; the shrieks of hun- 
dreds of women roasting in the houses ; a band 
of warriors making their last stand ; and the 
Spanish horsemen charging through and slaugh- 
tering them. 

At last the end came. The accounts say a 
solitary warrior, seeing himself left alone, sprang 
upon the palisade and, finding escape cut off, 
twisted off his bow-string and hanged himself to 
a limb. " If not true, 'tis well invented." 

The conquerors held the smoking ruins. But 
what a victory ! Truly might Soto have ex- 
claimed, like Hannibal after Cannae, " Another 
such victory, and I am ruined ! " Eighty-two 
Spaniards lay dead. Numbers of horses, so pre- 
cious to the army, had been killed. And so 
many of the men were wounded that the one 
surgeon could not give them attention. All the 
ointments and salves, all the lint and linen, and 
almost all the provisions had been consumed in 
the fire. The force was so shattered that Soto 
was compelled to remain on the spot three weeks, 

279 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

before it could move. Of the Indians the 
slaughter was frightful. Eleven thousand were 
slain, say the Spanish accounts, but undoubtedly 
with even more than their habitual exaggeration. 

But the savages really were the victors, as 
Soto's next move shows. Though he had come 
so near to his destination — within a few days' 
journey of Pensacola — he turned back and 
marched north again. His failure dates from 
that disastrous day. It was the beginning of the 
end. Had he pushed on to Pensacola, met his 
supply-ships, recruited his army, and established 
a base of operations, he might have made a fresh 
start and effected a lodgment in the country. 
But he marched inland to his ruin. No doubt 
he turned away in the hope of making some 
discovery or achieving some conquest that would 
retrieve his disaster. In any case, it was the 
battle of Mauvila that upset all his plans and 
led to the defeat of his expedition. When we 
honor the memory of brave defenders of their 
country enshrined in history, let us not forget 
the valiant Choctaw chief, Tuscaloosa, and his 
warriors. 

Marching northwest, the Spaniards entered 
the bounds of the present State of Mississippi. 

280 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

They passed through a pleasant flat country, 
abounding in provisions, without encountering 
any more serious hindrance than constant annoy- 
ance from the Indians, and finally reached a very 
agreeable village, which is supposed to have been 
situated on the left bank of the Yazoo River, 
probably not far from the present Yazoo City. 
This was in the Chickasaw country, and the 
Spaniards called the village by that name. The 
inhabitants had fled, leaving their crops ungath- 
ered in the fields. It was now the first week in 
December, and Soto determined to winter there. 
Accordingly, the army made itself comfortable, 
and there it remained enjoying the houses and 
provisions. The men had little to do but to 
hunt rabbits and stray Indians, always in the 
hope of finding some one who could tell them 
where to find gold. All was going well, and the 
horses had grown fat with idleness and a plenty 
of corn, when, one night towards the end of 
January, as a fierce north wind was blowing and 
the men were sleeping in their cozy quarters, 
suddenly the war-whoop resounded on every 
side at once, and at the same time the roofs over 
their heads burst into a blaze. In an instant 
or two the whole camp was in a roaring flame. 

281 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Through the carelessness of the guard, the wily 
savages had come near unseen and had poured in 
a volley of arrows with burning wisps attached 
which quickly ignited the thatched roofs. The 
Spaniards sprang to arms, the most of them in 
their shirts, and, amid the smoke and confusion, 
made the best fight they could. It was short and 
sharp. Soto, in his haste, had leaped on his horse 
without looking to the girth. As he rose in his 
right stirrup to give force to a thrust, the saddle 
turned, and he pitched forward on his head. 
The enemy surrounded him, and he narrowly 
escaped being killed on the spot. But his men 
dragged him out, and he soon was in the saddle 
again. The Spaniards rallied and drew together 
into a body, and the Indians disappeared as 
suddenly as they had come, leaving forty of the 
invaders and fifty horses dead, many of the latter 
burned where they stood, fastened with chain 
halters. 

The condition of the Spaniards was now more 
deplorable even than after Mauvila. The larger 
part of their clothing, arms, and saddles had been 
consumed, with all their provisions. Almost 
the whole herd of hogs was roasted. And they 
were houseless in mid-winter. Happily for them, 

282 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

the Chickasaws did not attack again, and they had 
an opportunity to fit up a rude forge, made of 
gun-barrels, with bellows of bear-skin, and to 
repair somewhat their losses in accoutrements. 
But as to clothing, they were half-naked, and 
they were fain to cover themselves with straw 
mats. They spent the remainder of a cheerless 
winter in an open camp, hunting and slaying 
Indians by day, and harassed by them every 
night. With the first days of spring they 
marched out, glad enough to leave the Chicka- 
saw country. Once more they turned their 
backs on the ocean and plunged into the wilder- 
ness. Left to themselves, the majority would 
quickly have abandoned the country they had 
learned to execrate. But Soto was bent on 
plucking victory from the jaws of disaster, and 
his iron will dominated all. 

They had, however, still another encounter 
with the Chickasaws. The Alibamo branch of 
this great tribe had a stronghold which lay 
directly in the path of the column, situated, 
according to Indian tradition, on the Yazoo 
River, in Tallahatchie County. A great force 
of Indians had gathered there, the most for- 
midable in appearance that the Spaniards had 

283 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

yet encountered. Terrible were the braves in 
war-paint and feathers, with their bodies striped 
in various colors and circles of vermilion around 
their eyes, giving them a truly devilish look. 
These fierce savages were emboldened by their 
recent success, and, on the other side, the Span- 
iards were full of bitter resentment. 

The fight was opened by an advance of the 
assailants on foot in three columns, one against 
each entrance of the stockade. The Indians, 
in their over-confidence, made the mistake of 
coming outside and meeting the enemy in the 
open. When they were driven back, the narrow 
entrance became blocked. Those who could not 
pass through were caught between the wall and 
the advancing line of steel. At this moment 
Soto led a charge of horsemen from one side, 
and Vasconselas, the commander of the Portu- 
guese troop, from the other, cutting their way 
through the crowded and confused savages. It 
was a regular slaughter. Those who escaped 
made their way through the rear entrance of 
the fort, crossed the river, and again defied the 
enemy. While the infantry took the stockade 
and put to the sword all whom they could catch, 
Soto found a ford, led the cavalry across the 

284 



HERNANDO DE SOTO 

river, charged and routed the enemy, and pur- 
sued them until night. 

The victory was complete. Two thousand 
Indians, the conquerors claim, were slain. But 
their own loss was severe. 



285 



chapter XI 

DEATH OF HERNANDO DE SOTO 



chapter XI 

DEATH OF HERNANDO DE SOTO 

The Great River. — Crossing it. — Rumors of Coronado. — 
Plans for a Colony on the Mississippi. — Death of Soto. — 
His romantic Burial. — March towards Mexico. — Moscoso's 
Cruelty. — Return to the Great River. — Flight down it in 
Boats. — Mexico reached. 

THE next notable experience of the 
Spaniards was in coming upon a river 
so wide that "if a man stood still on 
the other side, it could not be deter- 
mined whether he were a man or not." Little 
did they imagine, as they stood looking on that 
mighty stream pouring its turbid flood toward 
the ocean, that their one title to fame, after their 
bloody deeds should be forgotten, would be 
the fact that they first crossed the Missis- 
sippi. Twenty-two years earlier their country- 
man, Alvarez de Pineda, had entered its mouth. 
They were the first white men who reached the 
Mississippi, or the Great River (Rio Grande), 
as they called it, by land. 
19 289 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Soto purposed crossing, for of course he had 
been told of a rich country abounding in gold 
beyond it. But there was not any point suitable 
for that purpose within sight, for they were at 
the Chickasaw Bluffs. Four days they followed 
its course before they came to a fit place. Then 
they set to work with their usual energy to build 
boats. Three weeks were consumed in this 
work. Then four boats were finished. The 
crossing was begun some hours before daylight, 
so as to avoid being attacked while in confusion, 
and it was finished shortly after sunrise. 

Now the invaders were in the land of Arkansas, 
certainly the fifth, probably the sixth or seventh 
of the States of the present Union whose soil 
these tireless wanderers had touched. We shall 
not follow their roamings. Let it sufiice to say 
that they traveled far enough westward, probably, 
to come within the present Indian Territory, 
and then, hearing that the most populous regions 
lay to the south, they turned tov^^ards the ocean. 
They learned that the country to the north and 
west consisted of bare plains, on which were 
countless herds of cattle (buffalo), and that, at 
that very time, a band of their countrymen were 
wandering over these plains. Rumors of Cor- 

■290 



DEATH OF HERNANDO DE SOTO 

onado's march had traveled eastward. At the 
time that Soto turned south, a distance estimated 
at not more than six hundred miles separated 
the two adventurers, so nearly had they come 
together, after starting from opposite sides of 
the continent. Had the two bands encountered 
each other, what a meeting that would have been ! 
It would be unprofitable to follow the weary 
wanderings of the Spaniards. Autumn found 
them in a well-provisioned village on the Red 
River or one of its affluents, within the present 
State of Louisiana. Here they passed the most 
comfortable and restful winter they had experi- 
enced since their landing. In the early spring 
Soto, to the great joy of his men, turned back 
towards the Great River, following the course 
of the Red River. His plan was to establish 
himself on the banks of the Mississippi ; there 
to build brigantines and send them down the 
stream, into and across the Gulf, to Cuba; and 
thence to draw fresh supplies and men for his 
colony, which was to be the centre of Spanish 
influence in all the region that he had traversed. 
Some of the men went down the Red River in 
boats, while the rest followed its shores ; and in 
due time the Great River was reached. 

291 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Soto's plan of a colony on the Mississippi was 
worthy of a great and bold genius. It was 
revived, one hundred and fifty years later, by 
another daring adventurer, the French explorer. 
La Salle. Neither succeeded. Each was cut off 
in the midst of his efforts by an unforeseen enemy, 
the last and greatest of all. 

Immediately on reaching his goal Soto's tire- 
less brain began to work out the details of his 
great plan. He even selected the officers and 
crews who were to take to Cuba the brigantines 
he purposed building, while he himself, with the 
remainder of his force, would hold the ground 
which he had chosen for his colony. Men were 
set to cutting timbers, while others put up forges 
and wrought such bits of iron as they had into 
bolts and nails ; and the Indians were bidden to 
bring quantities of gum collected from pine-, 
trees. But disease was already at work upon 
him. The malaria of the Red River swamps 
had engendered a fever in his system, already 
weakened by long exposure and by the shock of 
sore reverses. He sank day by day. When he 
felt that his end was near, he called his officers 
together, asked forgiveness for any wrong that 
he might have done to any, and requested them 

292 



DEATH OF HERNANDO DE SOTO 

to choose one of their number to succeed him in 
the command. They repHed with such comfort- 
ing words as they could summon and referred 
the choice of a commander to him. He named 
Luis Moscoso de Alvarado, who had been his 
lieutenant from the first. Then officers and men 
aHke swore allegiance to their new leader. 

Shortly afterward Soto, charging his officers 
with his last breath to persevere in his great 
undertaking, took his leave of earth. So the 
restless brain that had planned an empire and the 
proud heart that no reverses could subdue lay 
still in death. A little more than four years from 
the time that he left Spain brilliant and courted, 
with almost royal titles and power, he died ruined 
in an Indian village. 

He was a fine type of the Spanish soldier, in a 
day when Spain bred great warriors. His daring 
was splendid, and his fortitude matchless. He 
was a superb horseman, invincible as one of Char- 
lemagne's paladins, at all points a magnificent 
cavalier. He bore his full share in all privations, 
and pitiless as he was towards the poor " in- 
fidels," he was just and merciful to his soldiers. 
His iron will is shown by his holding them to 
his enterprise long after they had sickened of it. 

^93 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

How was the mighty fallen ! Now he was 
not secure even of a grave in the land where he 
had dreamed of an empire. The first thought 
of his officers was as to how they could hide 
his death, for they dreaded the effect on the 
Indians of learning that the leader whom they 
had represented as the " Child of the Sun," 
had died like a common mortal. At the first 
they said that he had gone away on a visit to 
Heaven and would return after a while. This 
would for a time account for his disappearance. 
But the finding of his body would rudely dispel 
the illusion. Therefore extraordinary precau- 
tions were necessary. At dead of night, with 
sentinels posted to keep the Indians at a dis- 
tance, the whole command followed the dead 
Adelantado to the grave. They smoothed and 
trampled the earth to obliterate every trace of 
the interment. Still the Indians seemed sus- 
picious, and the Spaniards, apprehending that 
they would dig up the body and wreak their 
vengeance on it by insult, resolved that some- 
thing more effectual must be done. Taking a 
hint perhaps from the romantic burial of Alaric 
the Goth, who, when his mighty wanderings 
and conquests were ended, was laid tor his long 

294 



DEATH OF HERNANDO DE SOTO 

sleep in the bed of the River Busento, they 
determined to commit the Conquistador's re- 
mains to the keeping of the Great River. In 
his rude coffin, the hollowed trunk of an oak, 
the dauntless leader, at midnight, was carried out 
into mid-stream and lowered into the deep. 




INDIAN BURIAL MOUNDS 



The first effect of his death was a decided 
relief to his men. The indomitable will that had 
held them fast to a distasteful enterprise was no 
more. Despite his dying charge, there was no 
question of staying, but only of the best way 
of getting out of the country. Should they pro- 
ceed with the building of the boats and seek 

295 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

Cuba by sea ? Or should they go overland to 
Mexico? The latter course seemed the less 
difficult and was decided on. With alacrity the 
adventurers broke camp and set their faces once 
more toward the West. 

We shall not follow them in their march. 
One or two places which are mentioned, such as 
Naguatex (now Natchitoches), in northern 
Louisiana, enable us to trace their route. They 
had the usual conflicts with Indians. In one 
case the latter drew them to a distance by attack- 
ing and then running away. While the Span- 
iards were chasing them another band fell upon 
the camp and were plundering it when the Span- 
iards unexpectedly returned. They routed these 
marauders and captured a number of them, 
Moscoso inflicted a savage punishment by cut- 
ting ofi-' the nose and the right hand of every 
one of the poor wretches. In another instance he 
avenged himself upon a guide who was charged 
with leading them astray, by turning loose the 
famished dogs on him. The miserable creature 
screamed under their cruel fangs tearing his quiv- 
ering flesh. They were pulled off and leashed. 
Then he confessed that his chief had ordered 
him to lead them astray, but vowed that he 

296 



DEATH OF HERNANDO DE SOTO 

would guide them truly now. But the Spaniards 
were so insensate in their rage that they again 
turned loose the dogs. These quickly tore him 
to pieces. Thus they deprived themselves, in 
their fury, of their sole guide in a country in 
which they were roaming without food and with- 
out knowing where they were. 

One does not wonder that, with such methods, 
they soon became disheartened and hopeless of 
being able to reach Mexico. They were now 
in northeastern Texas. Scouts who were sent 
out returned with the report that before them 
was a sterile land, destitute of corn and inhab- 
ited only by wandering tribes who raised no 
crops, but lived by hunting. After three years 
of roaming, they actually were in the very region 
in which Cabeza de Vaca had spent the greater 
part of his time. They even found traces of 
his stay, in the form of little crosses which the 
natives put up over their tepees, believing that 
they were "good medicine" and would keep 
away sickness. 

Disheartened, the officers determined to return 
to the Great River, to build boats, and to seek 
Mexico by sea. This resolution was carried out 
with amazing persistency. Cold rains poured 

297 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

upon them and so flooded the country that they 
could not find a dry spot to lie on. They were 
almost wholly without food, and they suffered 
constant attacks from the natives. Still they 
made their way back to the Mississippi. When 
they reached it they were so exhausted that num- 
bers of them, including the brilliant captain of 
the Portuguese troop, Vasconselos, died after 
coming into a land of rest and plenty. They 
routed the Indians from two villages and took 
possession of their supplies of corn, beans, and 
pumpkins. After resting some weeks, they set 
to work and built boats large enough to carry 
them all and strong enough to withstand the sea. 
On July 2, 1543, a little more than four years 
from their landing in Florida, they embarked and 
dropped quietly down the river. 

Their departure was quickly known to the 
Indians, and they swarmed in canoes to harass 
them. The lately insolent invaders were now 
distressed fugitives, eager to escape without fur- 
ther conflict. The Indians fully appreciated the 
situation and enjoyed it to the utmost. During 
the two weeks occupied in descending the river, 
a fleet of canoes unceasingly hung on their flanks, 
attacking them at every opportunity, and the 

298 



DEATH OF HERNANDO DE SOTO 

brigantines w-ere compelled to keep close together 
for mutual protection. By the time that they 
reached the mouth of the river they were so worn 
out by the incessant pursuit that they threw them- 
selves down on a sandy island and slept like dead 
men. 

Now came a peculiarly perilous part of the re- 
treat, the passage by sea. For fifty-eight days 
they worked their way along the shore almost 
perishing at times with thirst, always scant of 
provisions, tormented by clouds of mosquitoes, 
and buffeted by storms that severely tested their 
rude boats. But they came through it all safely, 
and at last reached Panuco, in Mexico, so ragged, 
blackened, and wretched in appearance that they 
were scarcely recognizable as white men. 

Thus ended this remarkable expedition, in its 
way a most notable performance. It was insolent, 
brutal, and bloody throughout. It left a broad 
trail of fire and pillage, of maiming and murder, 
wherever it went. And it accomplished not 
a single good result to offset its many evils and 
crimes. Even its discoveries were allowed to sink 
into oblivion. 



299 



Chapter XII 

THE SECOND CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO 



Chapter XII 

THE SECOND CONQUEST OF NEW MEXICO 

The Friars in New Mexico. — Juan de Ofiate leads an Expe- 
dition to New Mexico. — Treacherous Massacre of Spaniards 
at Acoma. — Desperate Fighting. — Villagran's Daring Leap. 
— Capture of Acoma.— How El Camino del Padre got its 
Name. — New Mexico Pacified. — Heroic Work of the Friars. 
^ Spain's Honorable Record. 

THE Story of the Southwest is full of 
thrilling episodes. Again and again 
we encounter examples of splendid 
heroism. The withdrawal of Coro- 
nado from New Mexico left the work of occupy- 
ing that region to be done over again. When he 
retired, however, three friars who accompanied 
him insisted on remaining behind, to carry on 
missionary work. Each chose a field, and each, 
sooner or later, was murdered by the Indians, 
who with good reason hated their race. 

After their disappearance there were no white 
men in New Mexico for many years, and the 
Pueblo Indians sank back into their old existence, 

303 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

dreaming away life in their weird cliff-abodes, 
cultivating their little corn-fields on the plains 
below, holding their mysterious pagan ceremonies 
in the dark estufas, and dancing their ancient 
symbolic dances. Many and many a night, while 
the red glow of the fire on the hearth lighted up 
their dusky, lowering faces, and the storm whistled 
without, laying its thick mantle of snow on the 
terraced roofs, they talked of terrible times that 
were gone by, when pale, bearded men appeared 
among them on swift monsters ; when the people 
of Tiguex must go out homeless and foodless to 
make room for the high-handed strangers whom 
they had welcomed; when the sky was red with 
the flames of burning pueblos ; when the sword 
devoured, the keen lance pierced, and the deadly 
thunder-stick laid low the escaping inmates, and 
poor wretches who had surrendered were roasted 
at the stake. 

People who have no writing, but talk about 
things incessantly, remember them far more vividly 
than those who put them into books and then 
pass on to something else. So these events were 
kept fresh in the minds of the Pueblo Indians. 
This fact will account for some of the occurrences 
of which we are about to speak. 

304 



THE SECOND CONQUEST 

It was in 1598, forty-six years after Coronado's 
departure, that the second considerable Spanish 
force appeared in New Mexico. It was led by 
Juan de Onate. He was an ideal man for such 
an undertaking, for he was a native of the arid 
region of Zacatecas, in Mexico, was accustomed 
to the Hfe of such a country, and knew the 
Indians' ways. Though he was " born with a 
golden spoon in his mouth," — for his father, 
who discovered and owned the enormously pro- 
ductive silver mines of Zacatecas, was the first 
North American millionaire, — and he himself 
had married a granddaughter of Cortes, he had a 
great ambition to be an explorer, and he realized 
it splendidly. He was going into New Mexico 
"for keeps," and he spared no expense. His 
expedition cost him a round million before it 
started. There were two hundred soldiers, as 
many colonists, with women and children, and 
herds of sheep and cattle. He entered New 
Mexico, took formal possession in the King's 
name, marched up the Rio Grande, and founded 
San Gabriel where the hamlet of Chamita now 
stands, north of Santa Fe. This was the second 
town in the present United States, the first being 
Saint Augustine, in Florida. Seven years after- 
20 305 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

wards, in 1605, he founded Santa Fe, The City of 
the Holy Faith. He made extensive explorations, 
one as far to the north as Nebraska ; and he was 
the colonizer of New Mexico, which has been 
the abode of white men from his time to ours. 
But we have space only for one incident of the 
earliest occupation. 

Onate met with no immediate resistance. The 
Pueblo Indians had little love for his race and 
felt sore at their intrusion. But this strong force 
of four hundred was sufficient to over-awe them. 
One pueblo after another took the oath of allegi- 
ance to the Spanish crown, and everything looked 
peaceful. When Oiiate, on a tour of inspection, 
came to Acoma, that town perched on a high 
rock of which we have had former mention, the 
principal men came down from the lofty abode, 
showed themselves very friendly, and invited the 
Spanish commander and his men to visit them. 
He accepted, with a few followers climbed the 
almost perpendicular trail, with its notches for 
hands and feet in the rock-walls, and reached the 
eerie abode. They were shown everything about 
the place, the strange terraced houses, with story 
piled up over story, like steps; the deep natural 
reservoirs, where the gathered rain and snow- 

306 



THE SECOND CONQUEST 

water formed the only supply ; and the sheer pre- 
cipices, of dizzy height, bounding the plateau on 
every side. In these curious houses there are no 
doors, but only holes in the roof, through which 
the inmates reach the rooms below by ladders. 
The Acomans led Oiiate to one of the openings 
and invited him to descend. He looked down 
and saw that all was dark below. In fact, it was 
the kiva, or estufa, the gloomy chamber in which 
councils were held and the wild mysteries of their 
religion were celebrated. With a swift sense of 
danger, he declined. Well for him that he did ! 
The dark room was filled with warriors lying 
ready to kill him, and his death would have been 
the signal for a general onslaught on the Spaniards. 
There was a long score to be wiped out, and the 
Indians thought this a good opportunity. When 
he declined they merely deferred the day of 
vengeance. 

Shortly after Onate's departure came one of his 
tried captains, Juan de Zaldivar, with thirty men. 
He, too, was invited to visit the town. Leaving 
half of his men below, he ascended with the other 
half As to what there took place I shall quote 
Mr. C. F. Lummis's "The Spanish Pioneers," a 
book of thrilling interest : " The town was so 

307 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

full of wonders, the people so cordial, that the 
visitors soon forgot whatever suspicions they may 
have had : and by degrees they scattered hither 
and yon to see the strange sights. The natives 
had been waiting only for this ; and when the 
war-chief gave the wild whoop, men, women, and 
children seized rocks and clubs, bows and flint 
knives, and fell furiously upon the scattered 
Spaniards. It was a ghastly and an unequal 
fight the winter sun looked down upon that 
bitter afternoon in the Cliff City. Here and 
there, with back against the wall of one of those 
strange houses, stood a gray-faced, tattered, bleed- 
ing soldier, swinging his clumsy flint-lock, club- 
like, or hacking with desperate but unavailing 
sword at the dark, ravenous mob that hemmed 
him, while stones rained upon his bent visor, and 
clubs and cruel flints sought him from every side. 
There was no coward blood among the doomed 
band. They sold their lives dearly ; in front of 
every one lay a sprawling heap of dead. But 
one by one the howling wave of barbarians 
drowned each grim, silent fighter, and swept off 
to swell the murderous flood about the next. 
Zaldivar himself was among the first victims ; and 
two other officers, six soldiers, and two servants 

308 



THE SECOND CONQUEST 

fell in that uneven combat. The five survivors, 
— Juan Tabaro, with four soldiers — got at last 
together, and with superhuman strength fought 
their way to the edge of the cliff, bleeding from 
many wounds. But the savage foes still pressed 
them ; and being too faint to carve their way to 
one of the " ladders," in the wildness of desper- 
ation the five sprang over the beetling cliff. 
Even if we presume that they had been so for- 
tunate as to reach the very lowest point of the 
rock, it could not have been less than one hundred 
and fifty feet I And yet only one of the five was 
killed by this inconceivable fall. The remaining 
four, cared for by their terrified companions in 
the camp, all finally recovered. It would be 
incredible, were it not established by absolute 
historical proof. It is probable that they fell 
upon one of the mounds of white sand which the 
winds had drifted against the foot of the cliffs in 
places." 

So runs the story, as Mr. Lummis tells it, 
following the Spanish historians. But it is prob- 
able that the whole incident of the marvelous 
leap is an interesting specimen of Spanish romance. 
A fall of one hundred and fifty feet, even upon a 
mound of sand, would mean death. 

3" 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

The men at the foot of the cliff, together with 
the survivors of the massacre, remained several 
days under the over-hanging rock, hourly expect- 
ing an attack from the savages. But none was 
made, probably because the Indians still stood in 
great awe of horses. Then they broke up into 
squads and carried the news of the disaster to every 
point where there were Spaniards. All hastened 
to assemble at San Gabriel, expecting an uprising 
of all the pueblos, such as the terrible one which 
took place eighty-two years later. But the Indians 
knew better than to attack the Spaniards await- 
ing them in their fortified stronghold. 

Onate was resolved to punish Acoma. But it 
would need a strong force to storm those beet- 
ling cliffs, defended by some three hundred 
native warriors, besides a hundred Navajo allies ; 
and he could not spare many men, without weak- 
ening too much the garrison of San Gabriel 
and exposing the women and children there to 
slaughter. Finally he and his officers agreed on 
sending seventy men, under the command of 
Vicente de Zaldivar, brother of the murdered 
captain, who craved the honor of leading this 
forlorn hope. 

Zaldivar and his little band, the most of them 
312 



THE SECOND CONQUEST 

armed only with swords and lances, with one 
little pedrero (a howitzer that fired stone pro- 
jectiles) lashed on the back of a horse, filed out 
of San Gabriel, little expecting to see it again. 
A march of eleven days brought them to Acoma. 
Runners had warned the Indians of the Spaniards' 
coming, and they swarmed on the edge of the 
cliff", the braves shouting defiance and curses to 
the Spaniards, while the medicine-men, hideously 
painted and befeathered, beat their drums and 
loudly called on their gods to overwhelm the 
invaders. Zaldivar shouted a summons to sur- 
render, but his voice was drowned by the clamor 
overhead. All that night the Indians kept up a 
frenzied war-dance, while the Spaniards, bivou- 
acked on the bare sands, arranged their plans. 
It was evident that an assault by main force 
would be folly, and that stratagem must supply 
the place of numbers. 

At daybreak the signal for the advance was 
given. While the main body made a pretended 
attack in front, keeping up a constant fusilade 
with their few arquebuses, twelve men, who had 
hidden during the night under the overhanging 
rocks, crept around the rear, with the one little gun, 
and, unperceived, began to scale the rocks, drag- 

3^3 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

ging the pedrero by ropes. Climbing from 
ledge to ledge, weighted as they were with their 
arquebuses and armor, and pulling the cannon 
after them, they reached at last the pinnacle of a 
lofty rock whose top was on the level of the 
plateau, but separated from it by a narrow but 
fearful chasm. This gave them a place from 
which to operate their gun. They had been all 
the day in accomplishing so much, and it was 
late in the afternoon when a loud report gave 
notice to their comrades on the other side that 
they had won their position. It was a tremen- 
dous surprise to the Acomans, and a most unwel- 
come one, to have the stone balls of the pedrero 
crashing into the pueblo. 

That night the Spaniards went in little parties 
and cut down small pines on the precipitous 
sides of the valley in which Acoma stands, and 
with infinite labor dragged them across the inter- 
vening plain and up to the dizzy height which 
their twelve comrades had reached. All the 
force was now assembled on this point, except a 
small number left below to guard the horses. 
Across the chasm which separated the Spaniards' 
rock from the plateau lay the Indians, hiding 
themselves and awaiting the attack. At daybreak 

314 



THE SECOND CONQUEST 

a squad of Spaniards rushed forward, with a log 
on their shoulders, and threw it so that it bridged 
the chasm. Others dashed across the dizzy 
foot-bridge, the Indians hastened to repel them, 
and the fighting became furious. Before many 
of the assailants had gone over, one who had 
crossed in his excitement seized the rope and 
jerked the log over. Thus he and his com- 
panions were cut off. They had all they could 
do to defend themselves, and the main body 
was unable to come to their support. 

In this crisis a hero came to the rescue and 
saved the day. He was Captain Caspar Perez 
de Villagran, one of the fearless young fellows of 
whom Spain sent not a few to the New World. 
He had already made a record as an athlete, and 
his muscular training served him well on this 
occasion. He saw the dilemma of his country- 
men across the chasm, too hard pressed to be 
able to stop to replace the log. He measured 
the distance with his eye. The leap required 
nerves of steel and trained muscles. If he fell 
short, he would plunge to a fearful death on the 
rocks at the bottom of the abyss. But he did 
not hesitate. Going as far back as he could for a 
start, he dashed forward to the brink and with a 

315 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

mighty leap cleared the yawning gulf. Then 
with another prodigious effort he pushed the log 
out until the men on the other side could catch 
the end. Once more the slender bridge was put 
in position, and the Spaniards hastened over to 
the aid of their comrades. 

Now the fighting became desperate. The 
Indians were defending their homes and, more- 
over, had wrought themselves up to a frenzy. 
They outnumbered the Spaniards nearly ten to 
one and swarmed about them with their rude 
weapons, bows and arrows, clubs, and knives of 
keen flint-flakes with ragged edges. On the 
other side was the disciplined valor of the Old 
World, wielding its arms and sheathed in mail. 
There was no time to stop and load the arque- 
buses, but swinging them like clubs and hewing 
their way with their short swords, now and again 
dazed by blows which only their helmets hindered 
from dashing out their brains, sometimes pausing 
to pull out arrows from their quivering flesh, 
the little band fought its way step by step, until 
the Indians suddenly broke and betook them- 
selves to the refuge of their great adobe-house, 
a fort in itself. 

Now there was time for the assailants to breathe. 
316 



THE SECOND CONQUEST 

Once more, it is said, Zaldivar called on the 
offenders to surrender, promising safety to all but 
those who had been concerned in the treacherous 
massacre. In vain ! The Indians would listen 
to no terms, but stuck doggedly to their huge 
barricaded house. Can we blame them if they 
distrusted the faith of these men whose country- 
men had burned in cold blood their prisoners, 
surrendered under solemn pledges of safety, at 
Tiguex .? 

Now the Spaniards dragged the little pedrero in 
front of the great terraced pile and opened fire. 
But the adobe walls, crumbling under the batter- 
ing of the stone balls, formed great heaps of clay, 
and the assailants needed to storm the place and 
carry it by main force, house by house, room by 
room. A fire broke out and added to the horror 
of the scene. The shrieks of women and the 
screams of terrified children mingled with the de- 
fiant yells of warriors. Zaldivar, it is said, made 
great efforts to save the women and children, but 
numbers perished beneath the falling walls. The 
carnage was fearful. The Indians neither asked 
nor expected quarter. Five hundred were killed, 
besides a great number wounded. And of the 
surviving Spaniards every one bore on his body 

317 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

some ghastly memento of that deadly struggle, 
the bloodiest in the history of New Mexico. 

It was noon of the third day since the fighting 
began when some of the old men came out and 
sued for mercy. It was readily granted. Indeed, 
there were but few left on whom vengeance could 
have been taken. Of the able-bodied nearly all 
were dead ; a few had made their escape. The 
town that had been built by nobody knows how 
many years of patient labor, in carrying every 
stone, every load of clay, every timber on the 
people's backs up the steep ladders, was so ruined 
that it needed to be rebuilt ; and all the weary 
work was to be done over again. The wretched 
survivors had lost, besides, all their food stored 
in their houses, and were in sore want. If Acoma 
had successfully resisted, all New Mexico would 
have been aflame. The fall of the great strong- 
hold sounded a note of warning to all the land 
to submit to the conquering strangers, and it did. 
This event inaugurated a long era of peace, and 
New Mexico became a settled province of Spain, 
with Santa Fe as its capital. But for many long 
years Acoma, though powerless, remained bitterly 
hostile to the Spaniards. 

It is a relief to turn from scenes of bloodshed 
318 



THE SECOND CONQUEST 

to the records of a quiet heroism which we can 
extol without a qualifying word. In the pioneer 
work of New Mexico the priests of the Roman 
Catholic Church played a part which deserves 
ever to be borne in grateful remembrance. For 
these men effected a conquest nobler and vastly 
more difficult than that of the sword, and they 
accomplished it in constant peril, and, in a great 
number of cases, at the actual sacrifice of their 
lives. A traveler among the Pueblo Indians to- 
day meets with many a reminder of the patient 
padres of the old days. Acoma furnished once 
more a notable example. The tourist who visits 
that famous rock will ascend to the pueblo by a 
stone stairway called by the natives el Camino 
del Padre (the Father's Path). The story of that 
name is as follows. In 1629 Fray Juan Ramirez 
went to Acoma, to found a mission there. He 
had declined a military escort, preferring to go 
simply as a soldier of the cross. The old bitter 
feeling was strong in Acoma, and when the 
people saw one of the hated race coming they 
crowded the edge of the rock, shouting curses 
and threats down to him. Undaunted, he went 
on and began to climb up. Just then a little 
girl, leaning over the giddy verge of the cliif, 

319 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

lost her balance, toppled over, and was sup- 
posed by her people to have fallen all the way 
to the bottom. But it chanced that she had 
landed on a sandy ledge not far below. There 
the friar, coming up, saw her. He climbed to 
where she was, took up the frightened little creat- 
ure, and carried her in his arms to the top. She 
was the pledge of peace. Her safety seemed to 
her people a miracle, and it turned their hearts 
to the padre, as to a heaven-sent man. The 
work which began with this happy augury pros- 
pered so greatly that Fray Juan lived more than 
twenty years with his flock, beloved by them. 
Under his direction, they built a large church 
with enormous labor, and they made great 
progress, not merely in learning to read and 
write Spanish, but in acquiring the spirit of a 
Christian civilization. 

This example is typical of what was done by 
scores of devoted priests. New Mexico is full 
of the monuments of their patient labors. How 
enormous their task was we can hardly conceive. 

There is not any reason to believe that the 
Indians of New Mexico, like those of Mexico, 
offered human sacrifices. Still, the Imaginary 
divinities whom they worshiped were grim and 

320 



THE SECOND CONQUEST 

cruel tyrants. When the Acomans fled from the 
Enchanted Mesa (see Chapter the Ninth) they 
made no effort to rescue the forlorn old people 
who remained on the top of the rock, because 
they believed it to be the will of their gods that 
they should return thither no more. 

Imagine the immense difficulty which the 
Spanish priests had in converting a people whose 
idea of religion was such as this. They had first 
to convince them that the gods they believed in 
were not even real beings, but only dark phantoms, 
born of ignorance and fear. In the place of the 
old superstitions, they had to give them the new 
and strange teaching of a religion of gentleness, 
patience, and forgiveness. This the faithful 
padres did, more by example than by precept. 
They lived with their barbarous flocks, shared 
their privations, bore with their faults, patiently 
taught them all that they were capable of learn- 
ing, and, by proving how much they cared for 
them, gained their confidence and love. They 
literally took their lives in their hands when they 
went, alone and on foot, to carry the message of 
the cross to the pueblos. They had to encounter 
the bitter hostility of a people who hated their 
race. Sometimes this burst out on the spot, and 

3^1 



PIONEER SPANIARDS 

they were killed almost at their first appearance. 
At other times it smouldered for years and 
seemed to have died, then suddenly flared up in 
fury when there was a general uprising. In the 
Pueblo insurrection of 1680 the priests, very 
generally, were killed and their churches destroyed, 
for the natives were bent on exterminating the 
last white man on their soil. 

In spite of all this, the thirsty plains of the 
Southwest were dotted here and there with solid 
stone churches in which faithful priests, in pov- 
erty and hardship, and in daily peril of their 
lives, preached the gospel to the red man. 

Let us give Spain her due. In these sketches 
we have seen instances enough of savage cruelty. 
But these were the acts of individual Spaniards. 
The aim of the Spanish government was to treat 
the Indians kindly, and, in the main, it was faith- 
fully carried out. The whole policy of Spain 
was directed to fitting the Indians to share in the 
national life, making them part of the people. 
They were regularly taught. Every church and 
convent in Spanish America had a school tor 
Indians attached to it. By 1544 there were so 
many who knew how to read and write that a 
book was made for them in their own language. 

322 



THE SECOND CONQUEST 

There were even industrial schools to train them 
in the mechanical arts. Through this wise and 
humane policy the natives of Mexico and New 
Mexico, whom the Spaniards found so ignorant 
and cruel and so addicted to terrible supersti- 
tions, were converted into a quiet, peaceable, and 
contented people. 



3^3 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 



I 

THE STORY OF ANCIENT MEXICO 

Reasons for thinking that America was peopled from Asia. — 
Evident Connection between the Mexicans and certain Tribes 
of our Northwest Coast. — The Toltecs. — The Mayas. — 
The Aztecs. — Reasons for thinking them all to belong to a 
Common Stock. — The Cultivation of Maize, the Foundation 
of the Social Progress of Mexico. — Toltec succeeded by 
Aztec Supremacy. — Progress hindered by the Lack of Do- 
mestic Animals and of Iron. — Lord Macaulay's Opinion as 
to the alleged Civilization of Ancient Mexico. 

MANY hundreds, possibly thousands, 
of years ago seven savage tribes came 
frorii the North, at intervals, into the 
central region of the country now 
called Mexico. They were all related to each 
other, though they bore different names. The 
tradition of their descendants was that they 
came out of seven caves in the North. Most 
likely, this means that, in their slow southward 
movement, they lived for some generations in 
cliff-dwellings. 



APPENDIX 

Whence came these people, is a question that 
cannot be answered with any degree of certainty. 
But many scholars hold strongly that they were 
immigrants from Asia. Two important facts 
point to this conclusion. One is that, beyond 
any question, our continent and Asia formerly 
were continuous. Behring Strait is said to be of 
comparatively recent formation, and Behring Sea 
is known to be a shallow body of water. Before 
the sinking of the land underlying it and the 
rushing together of the waters of the Arctic and 
Pacific oceans there was a broad territory, now 
sunk in the sea, over which dwellers on the 
western side of the Pacific could Dass over to the 
lands on its eastern side. 

If this view is correct, there must have been, 
for hundreds of years, a succession of savage 
hordes pouring over from crowded Asia into 
America. British Columbia and our northwest 
coast were the regions where they first found 
themselves on American soil. Thence some, 
taking an easterly direction and spreading them- 
selves out towards Hudson Bay, were the fathers 
of the race known to us as the Athapascans. 
Others, journeying southeast, later were dis- 
tinguished as the Algonquins, the Iroquois, and 

328 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT MEXICO 



the Dakotans. Still others pushed their way 
down the Pacific coast. Some tribes no doubt, 
finding congenial locations on the shore of the 
ocean, abandoned 
roaming and set- 
tled down. Thus 
we come to our 
second point. 
Certain tribes of 
British Columbia, 
especially the Hai- 
dah, show the 
most unmistaka- 
ble connection 
with the old Mex- 
icans. This is 
particularly no- 
ticeable in - the 
peculiar character 
of their carvings 
in wood, stone, 
and bone. It is said that no one, comparing 
these with similar work found in ancient temples 
of Mexico, can doubt that those who executed 
them belonged to the same original stock. An 
idol from a Haidah lodge in British Columbia 

3^9 




SPFXIMEXS OF CARVING FROM THE 
NORTHWEST COAST 



APPENDIX 

would at once be recognized as belonging to the 
same type with the grotesque images found in 
Mexico and Yucatan. 

I'his splitting of a tribal stock into widely- 
sundered fragments need not surprise us. It is 
not unusual to find instances of such a separation. 
The Apaches who roam the burning plains of 
the Southwest are now known to be a branch 
of the Athapascans who wander over the wilds, 
covered with ice and snow for a great part of the 
year, of the British Northwest Territory, thou- 
sands of miles distant. Further, these North 
Pacific tribes are said to be so noticeably like the 
natives of Eastern Asia that individuals among 
them might easily be mistaken for Asiatics. 
These facts undoubtedly give strong color to 
the theory that our continent was peopled from 
Asia. But this movement certainly took place 
at a date so remote that we are warranted in 
treating the American aborigines as a distinct 
race. 

These new-comers on Mexican soil undoubt- 
edly were desperate savages. In the country into 
which they came they found other peoples, earlier 
immigrants, already domesticated. They sub- 
dued them, became the ruhng race, and at the 

330 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT MEXICO 

same time learned from them whatever industrial 
arts they possessed, including, probably, the 
cultivation of maize and various uses of the 
aloe. 

In reading of Mexico and its antiquities we 
constantly encounter mention of the Toltecs, 
a name which has been explained as meaning 
" builders." For a long time there was the 
same tendency as in the case of the so-called 
Mound-builders to treat them as a mysterious 
race that has vanished. Whenever natives were 
asked concerning the origin of ancient structures, 
they always answered, " The Toltecs built them," 
just as old writers were wont to dispose of any- 
thing unfamiliar in early Greek history by attrib- 
uting it to the Pelasgi. The better opinion 
now seems to be that the Toltecs were simply 
an advanced tribe, kindred to the Aztecs. Their 
first city was a place called ToUan, on a hill 
known as Coatepetl, or Serpent Hill. After 
some generations, hard pressed by hostile neigh- 
bors, they retreated southward. According to 
some writers, they took up their abode in the 
valley of Mexico and built the famous city 
which Cortes took. According to others, they 
journeyed vet further, settled in Yucatan and 



APPENDIX 

Central America, and developed that remarkable 
advancement of which the traces are so striking. 
In either view, there is not anything mysterious 
about the Toltecs. Probably they were at one 
time the predominant tribe in their region, but 
after their removal from Tollan became merged 
in the more important tribe, the Aztecs. Per- 
haps the history of early England affords a 
parallel case. Of the invaders who overran it 
the Angles must surely have been, at the first, 
the more important people, since they gave their 
name (Angle-land) to the country. But they 
seem to have lost their importance as the kindred 
Saxons came to the front. By the time of 
the Norman conquest we hear only of Saxons. 
Probably in a similar way, by the time of the 
Spanish conquest, the Toltecs had lost their early 
predominance and become merged in the Aztecs. 
Another people of whom we read much are the 
Mayas, of Yucatan and Central America. There 
has been the same tendency as in the case of the 
Toltecs to treat them as a mysterious and van- 
ished race, possessed of a wonderful culture. 
The better opinion now is that they were of the 
same stock as the Mexicans. There undoubt- 
edly was a close similarity between the two in 

33^- 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT MEXICO 



government, religion, and social advancement. 
They had many deities in common, and both 
sacrificed men and women to their gods, and 




mi^m^w 




oooo 




O O 







A PAGE FROM A MAYA BOOK 



both were cannibals. Moreover, they believed 
themselves to be kindred peoples. In some 
points the Mayas were superior to the Mexicans. 
They had developed an alphabet and had a con- 
siderable literature. That eminent authority on 

333 



APPENDIX 

the American aborigines, Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, 
says, "The Mayas were naturally a literary peo- 
ple. Had they been offered the slightest chance 
for the cultivation ot their intellects, they would 
have become a nation of readers and writers." 
Instead of having a chance, they were crushed by 
the Spaniards and never rose again. 

On the other hand, in some particulars they 
stood below the Mexicans, who especially ex- 
celled in their social organization. The general 
opinion is that they had passed the zenith of 
their progress before the conquest, whereas the 
Aztecs were steadily advancing when Cortes shat- 
tered their confederacy. If they were indeed 
already a declining people, we can more readily 
understand the utter decay that has overtaken 
them. 

What tended most of all to throw an air of 
mystery about the Mayas was the notion that 
the cities whose ruins have excited the wonder 
of travelers were very ancient, and had been 
reared by a people far superior to the present 
Inhabitants. On the other hand, one of the best- 
known explorers, Mr. Stephens, as quoted by 
Dr. Fiske, says, " I repeat my opinion, that we 
are not warranted in going back to any ancient 

334 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT MEXICO 

nation of the Old World for the builders of these 
cities ; that they are not the work of people who 
have passed away, and whose history is lost, but 
that there are strong reasons to believe them the 
creations of the same races who inhabited the 
country at the time of the Spanish conquest, 
or some not very distant progenitors. Some are 
known to have been inhabited at the time of 
the Spanish conquest. Others were no doubt 
already in ruins." What seems to settle the 
matter bevond all doubt is that a Maya docu- 
ment has been discovered which was written after 
the coming of the Spaniards. It tells the story of 
the conquest and refers explicitly to Chichen-Itza 
and Izamal, two of the most famous ruined cities, 
as inhabited towns during the time that the Span- 
iards were coming, from 15 19 to 1542. We 
may therefore conclude, with Dr. Fiske, that 
some of the Maya cities, known to us only by 
their ruins, were " no older than the ancient city 
of Mexico, built a. d. 1325." 

Before a common-sense criticism the mystery 
of the Mayas vanishes along with the kindred 
mysteries of the Mound-builders and the Toltecs. 
Because of the close similarity of the Mayas and 
the Mexicans, the treatment here given to the 



APPENDIX 

latter may be considered as applying equally to 
the former. No separate discussion is necessary. 
The possession of a stable food which they 
could grow was the turning-point in the career 
of the invaders of the Mexican valley. Thus 
the maize-culture changed them from wandering 
savages, living from hand to mouth, into barba- 
rians advancing on the road towards civilization. 
Having fields, with growing crops, they became 
attached to the soil, built villages and towns, and 
began to develop a wonderfully interesting sort 
of social life. It is not difficult to imagine these 
lately rude hordes gaining ground with each gen- 
eration in the direction of knowing how to live. 
As they acquired a growing interest in a settled 
life, they learned much from those whom they 
had dispossessed. History tells us of more than 
one conquering people who acquired the arts of 
life from the vanquished race. The rude barba- 
rians who burst into the splendid Roman empire, 
overran its fruitful plains, and sacked its opulent 
cities, in many instances learned the arts of the 
subject people, became permanent settlers, and 
built up a new civilization on the ruins of that 
which they had destroyed. One of the finest 
regions of Europe still bears the traces of this 

33^ 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT MEXICO 

transformation. The name Lombardy carries us 
back to the time when a horde of wild, bearded 
warriors (Lombards, or Longobarten, that is, 
Longbeards) overran the fertile valleys of north- 
ern Italy and began a marvelous career of 
civilization. 

How long these new-comers into what we call 
Mexico had been on American soil before they 




THE FAMOUS DIGHTON ROCK 



reached the region where history finds them, we 
have no means of knowing. Quite likely, hun- 
dreds of years had passed in the slow process by 
which they had gradually drifted or been pushed 
southward. In the opinion of some writers, they 
were the builders of the earliest mounds,^ and 
these were partly defensive structures which they 
reared in order to protect themselves against the 
attacks of warlik-e neighbors. The mounds were, 

1 See p. 95. 

337 



APPENDIX 

then, an expression of the same tendency to 
build, both for defence and for religious purposes, 
which afterwards showed itself so markedly in 
the lands of their adoption, Mexico and Central 
America. 

After the immigrants had become settled in 
their new home, one tribe, as we have seen, be- 
came especially noted in the march of progress. 
These were the Toltecs, renowned builders. 
Their city of Tollan was made up of massive 
stone structures, which stood long after its inhab- 
itants had wandered or been driven away. It is 
said that the houses of the modern city of Tula 
are constructed chiefly of the materials used by 
these ancient builders in rearing their abodes and 
temples. There is a fascinating interest about 
this old people. They cultivated especially the 
arts of peace. Their religion seems to have been, 
milder than that of the tribe who succeeded them 
in power, and to have been free from those 
atrocious and revolting features of which we 
shall have occasion to speak later, and which so 
shocked the Spaniards. They left their impress 
so deeply stamped upon the minds of all that 
region that, for hundreds of years afterwards, all 
that was worthiest was ascribed to them. When 

33^ 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT MEXICO 

they were driven from Tollan, as it seems, by- 
warlike tribes, they took refuge in Cholula ; their 
milder religion became tainted with the bloody 
rites which the Spaniards found in vogue there; and 
they themselves were absorbed in the tribe which 
had come to the front as the ruling one, and which 
the Spaniards found predominant, the Aztecs. 




MAP OF THE AZTEC TERRITORV, WITH CORTES' ROUTE 

At the time of the conquest, the famous Aztec 
League was made up of three tribes, the Aztecs, 
whose city was Tenochtitlan (Mexico), the Tez- 
cucans, and the Tlacopans, whose cities stood on 
opposite shores of the lake. Of these the Aztecs 
were the leading people. For this reason they 
are taken as the typical race ; and what is said of 
them in these pages is intended to apply equally 
to their allies. This remarkable people had 
attained a degree of advancement that was ex- 

339 



APPENDIX 

traordinary, if we consider the enormous disad- 
vantages under which they labored. They and the 
Mayas exhibited a social condition far the highest 
on the northern continent. It was strangely 
compounded of elements nearly approaching 
civilization in some points with others of the 
most debased and revolting nature. Let us 
consider some of the disadvantages against which 
they contended. 

The first and greatest was the want of that 
without which civilization is impossible, the help 
of domestic animals. We only realize what this 
means when we consider how greatly the people 
of the Old World have been indebted for their 
advancement to the horse, the ass, the ox, the 
sheep, the goat, the camel, the elephant, the hog, 
and the reindeer. Not one of these animals was 
found in the New World, except the reindeer, of. 
which the American species has never been tamed 
to man's use. The only domestic animal found 
in both worlds was the dog. This had been 
domesticated by the Aztecs and was used both 
for hunting and for food. Let us consider for 
a moment what a vital part the domesticated 
animals of the Old World have played in the 
upward march of humanity. If we try to place 

340 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT MEXICO 

ourselves in that dim past when our Aryan fore- 
fathers were in their original seats, before the 
parting of the great family into those branches 
which afterwards became the mighty nations of 
the modern world, what do we find? Already 
in that gray dawn of human history, the ox was 
the friend of man. The Aryans were a pastoral 
people, possessing large herds of cattle. This 
fact was vital in those migratory movements 
which founded the great nations that have made 
European history. Herds of cattle make it 
possible for large bodies of people to transport 
themselves to new abodes, since they furnish a 
constant supply of the most nourishing food, 
milk, at the same time that their skins serve both 
for covering the individual body and for making 
tents to shelter the family. Truly, therefore, has 
the cow been called " the foster-mother of man." 
When the wandering tribe has settled down to a 
fixed habitation and begun to till the soil, the ox 
still is man's most useful friend, drawing both 
the clumsy plough that turns the soil and pre- 
pares it to receive the seed and the lumbering 
wagon that hauls home the ripe grain. 

When the rude tillers of the soil have reached 
a more advanced stage of progress and have 

341 



APPENDIX 

developed commerce, more rapid locomotion 
becomes a necessity. Then the horse comes on 
the scene as an equally indispensable ally. Prob- 
ably, the domestication of this noble animal, 
with the resulting adaptation to man's varying 
needs, has been the greatest single achievement 
of our race and the most helpful, from the dis- 
covery of the use of fire until that of the appli- 
cation of steam. The horse has made possible 
immense strides of human progress. In a certain 
sense we may say that he has lifted man out of 
savagery to the plane where he has found himself 
able to harness the irresistible forces of nature 
and make them his servants. Through measure- 
less ages the horse has prepared the way for 
steam and electricity. We show our estimate of 
his service to man when we state the capacity of 
an engine in terms of " horse-power." If civil- 
ized man Is fast nearing a plane of development 
where he may dispense with the horse, it is only 
because this faithful friend has borne him up all 
the long ascent from savagery to the high level 
of to-day. 

Every domesticated animal has its adaptation 
to particular uses which it alone can serve. 
Think of the inestimable service of the " silly 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT MEXICO 

sheep," clothing and feeding multitudes. The 
poor peasant who tills a little patch beside his 
cottage has an humble friend in his donkey. 
The patient little animal bears the produce of 
the plot to market and then finds his own board 
and lodging on the village common. Far up 
Alpine crags, where no other animal could plant 
its foot, the Swiss peasant's goat clambers secure, 
crops the scanty herbage, and nourishes a family 
with her milk. A veritable " ship of the desert " 
is the camel, trailing in long procession across 
waterless, burning wastes, laden with the precious 
products of the far East. To the Laplander the 
reindeer is all in all, supplying milk and trans- 
portation while living, and, when dead, flesh and 
covering for the person and the tent. He alone 
renders existence possible in vast regions where 
with his help, man lives, not only safe, but with 
a certain measure of comfort. 

In short, we associate some kind of domestic 
animal with every race of men, and we see that 
our civilization at bottom rests on the service of 
our dumb helpers. Bearing in mind this fact, 
we realize how dire was the condition of the 
Mexicans. Except the dog, not a single domes- 
ticated quadruped did they possess. The fault 

343 



APPENDIX 

was not theirs. Nature was peculiarly niggard 
in not giving to the New World the various 
animal species capable of domestication that 
abounded in the Old. All our various quad- 
rupeds of to-day are descended from Old World 
ancestors. The Mexicans seem to have made the 
best use of their very slender opportunities. They 
had tamed the turkey, and they reared it in large 
numbers. They also bred pheasants, partridges, 
and pigeons ; and they kept immense numbers 
of wild birds in aviaries for their feathers, which 
were used in making exquisite feather-work, to 
be arranged either in cloaks for state ceremonies 
or as decorations for walls. 

In consequence of this lack, ploughs and 
wheeled carriages being impossible, all tillage 
of the soil was carried on by hand only, and 
commerce was limited to the exchange of such 
goods as could be transported in canoes across 
the lake or by land on the backs of porters. 
Therefore, also, roads there were none, the nar- 
row paths, or trails, which led across the country 
being immeasurably inferior to the great high- 
ways which civilization is wont to create, and of 
which aboriginal America afforded one remarkable 
example in the vast system of roads which existed 

344 



THE STORY OF ANCIENT MEXICO 

in ancient Peru, where the llama served the pur- 
poses of a pack-animal. 

This lack of domestic animals had another 
and very startling consequence, to which attention 
will be invited in the succeeding chapter. 

One other great need of the ancient Mexicans 
deserves particular mention. They had never 
learned the art of smelting iron-ore. Conse- 
quently, they had no tools capable of taking a 
keen edge. For working purposes their one 
metal was bronze. Their sharpest weapons and 
most serviceable tools were made of obsidian, a 
glassy volcanic substance. The most of their work 
was done with stone implements ; and when we 
consider this tremendous limitation, we may well 
wonder at the extent and variety of their operations 
and the skill and ingenuity of their craftsmen. 

Such limitations alone would have sufficed to 
render civilization impossible. They give a 
certain color of justice to the severe judgment of 
Lord Macaulay, who, far from accepting the ro- 
mantic estimate of certain historians, describes the 
ancient Mexicans as "savages who had no letters, 
who were ignorant of the use of metals,^ who had 

1 This is incorrect: they were skilful workers in gold, silver, and 
copper. 

345 



APPENDIX 

not broken in a single animal to labor [not their 
fault, we have seen], who wielded no better 
weapons than those which could be made out 
of sticks, flints, and fish-bones, who regarded a 
horse-soldier as a monster, half man and half 
beast, and who took a harquebusier for a sorcerer, 
able to scatter the thunder and lightning of the 
skies." 



346 



II 



THE SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE OF 
ANCIENT MEXICO 

A Deficiency of Animal Food made Cannibals of the Mexicans. 
— The Country rich in Vegetable Products. — Floating Gar- 
dens. — Architecture. — Frequent Appearance of the Ser- 
pent-symbol. — Probable Connection of the Mexicans with 
some of the Mound-builders. — Picture-writing. — Rudimen- 
tary Commerce. — Slavery. — The Aztec League. — Mexi- 
can Worship a Development of Fetishism. — Its Revolting 
Elements. 

jA S we explore the beginnings of human 
/ ^ society in all parts of the globe, we 
/ % find that man's bodily needs are the 
chief cause of his exertions. The 
quest of food stimulates him to hunt, to fish, and 
therefore to exercise his ingenuity in devising 
ways and means of taking game and fish ; and 
thus it develops his intelligence. It moves 
tribes to wander, like buffalo-herds seeking pas- 
turage, into new regions, always in search of more 
abundant food-supplies. This was the great 
motive-power of all the early migrations. It 
is the same thing, on a lower plane, with the 

347 



APPENDIX 



desire to "better themselves" that brings hun- 
dreds of thousands of immigrants every year to 
our country from the Old World. In other 
words, the food-supply is 
that which, at bottom, 
determines the action of 
bodies of men. Un- 





doubtedly, the 
cannibalism of 
Polynesia was 
due to a defi- 
cient food-sup- 
ply. These 
verdant islands 
furnished abundant vegetable sustenance, and the 
sea supplied fish ; but, in the absence of game and 
of domestic animals, the craving for flesh found 

348 



INDIANS KILLING A BISON. AN 
INDIAN DRAWING 



SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 

no satisfaction before Europeans had introduced 
goats, swine, and other four-footed beasts. Pris- 
oners of war afforded what Nature had failed to 
supply ; and war was looked upon as the regular 
means of providing the most highly prized food 
that the savage islander knew of. 

Precisely the same causes were operative in 
ancient Mexico. War was waged for the express 
purpose of taking prisoners, to be eaten. The 
Mexicans were man-eaters, just as we are beef- 
eaters and sheep-eaters. Prisoners of war were 
fattened in pens for slaughter, precisely as our 
farmers fatten pigs. It is true that this slaughter 
of human beings was connected with their reli- 
gious ceremonies, but it was simply as food of 
the most precious kind that the victim was 
offered to the gods. After the smoking heart 
of the human victim had been taken out and 
held up to the divinity, the limbs were sold in the 
market like other kinds of food. 

This circumstance gives us the key to the 
whole social life of ancient Mexico. It was 
brutal, barbarous, and horribly debased. At the 
conquest, the Spaniards were amazed at finding 
the most of the outward aspects of civilization. 
There was a people dwelling in permanent habi- 

349 



APPENDIX 

tatlons of stone or of sun-dried clay and possess- 
ing a religion and temples; government and laws; 
arithmetic and chronology ; painting and sculp- 
ture; arms and military discipline; primitive his- 
torical records ; a rudimentary kind of commerce ; 
agriculture, cotton-spinning, and weaving; and 
not a few luxuries. They leaped to the conclu- 
sion that this was a civilized people, and they 
wrote glowing accounts of the splendor of " the 
Emperor" and his court. This mistaken esti- 
mate of things Mexican has lasted almost until 
our own time. The more searching investiga- 
tions of recent years have shown that this sup- 
posed brilliant civilization was, at the best, only 
a somewhat advanced barbarism. Besides the 
lack of several of the arts of life that are com- 
monly regarded as essential to civilization, the 
horrible prevalence of man-eating held the social 
state of the Mexicans on a low level. Civiliza- 
tion, even where it includes slavery, always shows 
some finer sense of what man is and is capable of. 
Where men look upon fellow-beings only as 
cattle, to be fattened and fed upon, there is an 
innate debasement which excludes all the higher 
aspirations. 

To this low level the Mexicans were con- 

3S^ 



J 



SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 

demned chiefly by their lack of animals available 
for food and capable of being trained to labor. It 
put them thousands of years behind the Euro- 
pean races in the march of progress. To such 
animals man owes wealth, leisure, mental develop- 
ment, and all that goes to make civilization. 
When the people of the Old World gained them, 
long before the dawn of history, they gained the 
means of rising above that degrading level of 
cannibalism on which they once stood, and on 
which the conquest found the Mexicans. 

If we bear in mind this fatal circumstance, we 
may well be amazed at the positive achievements 
of this remarkable people. The following brief 
summary is taken from Dr. Brinton's " Races and 
Peoples " : 

"The Aztecs were in the 'bronze age' of industrial 
development. Various tools, as hoes, chisels, and 
scrapers, ornaments, as beads and bells, formed of 
an alloy of tin and copper, and copper plates, of a 
crescentic shape, were used as a circulating medium in 
some districts. In welding and hammering gold and 
silver they were the technical equals of the goldsmiths 
of Europe of their day. Most of their cutting instru- 
ments, however, were of stone. 

"They were lovers of brilliant colors and decorated 



APPENDIX 

their costumes and buildings with dyed stuffs, bright 
flowers, and the rich plumage of tropical birds. Such 
feathers were also woven into mantles and head-dresses 
of intricate design and elaborate workmanship, an art 
now lost. Their dyes were strong and permanent, some 
of them remaining quite vivid after four centuries of 
exposure to the light." 

The New World, singularly deficient in large 
animals capable of being trained to man's service, 
was extraordinarily rich in vegetables available for 
food. Two, which have taken their place among 
the leading food-plants of the world, the potato 
and maize, are indigenous to the soil of America. 
The first was developed by the ancient Peruvians 
from a wild tuber, and was cultivated by them in 
enormous quantities. The second was found by 
the first Europeans in use all over this continent. 
It was the staple article of Mexican agriculture. 
It must have been developed at a very early day 
from some native plant ; for its diffusion almost 
throughout the continent indicates that it had 
long been cultivated. Probably the Aztecs, 
when they entered Mexico, found its culture 
established among the people whom they dis- 
possessed. Besides, they had fields of cotton, 
which they spun and wove ; and the cacao was 

3S^ 



SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 

extensively cultivated, and from its bean was pre- 
pared a drink which was the favorite beverage of 
the rich, as, in its commercial form, of chocolate, 
it is used to-day by the prosperous classes of all 
countries. In addition, the Mexican had adapted 
many other native plants to man's use. What 
the bamboo is to the Hindoos the aloe-plant 
was, in a less degree, to the Mexicans, serving a 
variety of purposes. Out of its fermented juice 
they made an intoxicating beverage, octli, now 
called pulque, which certainly has little attraction 
for a refined taste, if it is correctly described as 
looking like soap-suds and having the smell and 
taste of rotten eggs. Nevertheless, it remains to 
this day the national drink of the lower class of 
Mexicans, and its pernicious use is the national 
curse. In the Aztec period, the habit was 
severely restricted by law, and repeated drunken- 
ness was punished with death. 

Population being dense, and land scarce, the 
industrious Aztecs had devised an ingenious 
method of extending the area available for cul- 
tivation. A compact mass of reeds and other 
vegetable matter, such as floated on the surface 
of the lake, was used for a foundation. On this 
was spread a thin layer of rich earth. Thus was 

2.1 353 



APPENDIX 

formed a seed-bed in which the plants, kept in a 
constant state of moisture, grew rapidly and bore 
abundant crops. These " floating gardens " 
amazed the Spaniards. Examples of them might 
have been seen until very recent times on the 
shores of Lake Tezcuco. 

In architecture the Mexicans had made remark- 
able progress, all the more striking because it 
undoubtedly was a purely native growth, not 
derived in any degree from the art of the Old 
World, from which it is absolutely distinct. The 
great pyramid of Cholula compares in magnitude 
with the most stupendous results of human labor. 
If, as seems most likely, the ancestors of the 
Mexicans were the people who built the earliest 
clifF-dwellings of Arizona and southwestern Col- 
orado, they had already before their coming into 
Mexico developed a high degree of capacity for 
building in stone. These ancient abodes had been 
transformed from natural caves by rearing front- 
walls and partitions of stone. In other cases, 
entire houses of a considerable size had been 
built within the larger recesses of the rocks. 
Such a people coming into a region where trees 
suitable for timber were scarce, and settling down 
to the cultivation of the soil and the making of 

354 



SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 



homes, would naturally rear habitations adapted 
to serve both for shelter and for defence against 
marauding neighbors. Thus stone was the in- 
evitable material. The Mexicans seem to have 
begun with employing it in the form of large 
natural blocks, the interstices being filled with 
smaller ones, accurately adjusted. As they ad- 
vanced in skill, smaller 
stones were fitted to 
each other in the man- 
ner of mosaic rather 
than laid in regular 
courses. In the next 
stage of progress regu- 
lar courses make their 
appearance, laid with 
a skill in which no 
people has ever sur- 
passed these primitive masons. The last stage of 
progress was that of ornamentation. This was 
lavishly employed in the form of carved figures 
having a distinctive and unique character. Fig- 
ures of men, elaborately draped, are shown, some- 
times representing civil or religious ceremonies. 
These are either carved or are moulded in plaster. 
Various animals appear in these mural decora- 

3SS 




TERRA COTTA FROM CHIRIQUI 



APPENDIX 

tions ; none so frequently as the serpent, whose 
worship formed an important part of the national 
religion. This skill in carving and the peculiar 
style of the figures form one of the most striking 
proofs by which we connect the Mexicans with 
the coast tribes of British Columbia. 

At the same time the prevalence of the ser- 
pent-symbol serves to establish an undoubted 
connection with the builders of some of the 
mounds of the central region of the United 
States. When we find among the relics contained 
in these mounds the serpent again and again rep- 
resented in various conventional forms common 
in the monuments of ancient Mexico, especially 
in those of the horned serpent and the feathered 
serpent, we cannot doubt that there was, at the 
least, an intimate relation between these two 
peoples, and that to both the snake was an object 
of peculiar reverence. 

When we consider that these striking achieve- 
ments in architecture, entirely original in style, 
were made by a people who had no iron, but 
only bronze, and therefore no tools capable of 
taking a fine edge, we cannot but admire their 
native talent, their ingenuity, and their amazing 
perseverance. 

2S^ 



SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 



The aloe-plant, whose sap was fermented into 
the pernicious drink, pulque, had many other 
uses. One was that its fibre, beaten into thin 
layers, served the purpose of paper. By the 
application of a fine plaster, a smooth white sur- 
face was obtained. On this material pictographs 
were executed in brilliant vegetable colors. 
Ideas were conveyed by means of certain conven- 
tional pictures of objects which stood for words 
or parts of words. 

Thus the Aztec writing 
had something of the char- 
acter of a "rebus." It may 
be illustrated by the accom- 
panying example, taken from 
F. S. Dellenbaugh's "The 
North Americans of Yester- 
day," It shows how the 
name of Montezuma was written. The picture 
at the right is that of a mouse-trap, month, which 
gives us the first syllable, ?}ion. The head of the 
eagle furnishes the second syllable, quah. The 
lancet piercing the eye gives us the third, zo ; 
and the hand, the fourth, ma. Thus we obtain 
Monquahzoma, the Aztec form of the name. 

Commerce was still in the rudimentary stage 

357 




AZTEC SYMBOL FOR 
MONTEZUMA 



APPENDIX 

of barter. Having neither coins nor measures 
of weight, the Mexicans exchanged cotton cloths, 
the bright plumage of birds, pottery, cacao beans, 
green jade and other precious stones, and slaves. 
The products of one district were bartered for 
those of another, and regular markets were held 
frequently, at fixed intervals, in the city of 
Mexico, to which the people of the surrounding 
country flocked, bringing their commodities in 
canoes across the lake, or on their backs across 
the long causeways. Market-days in this strange, 
half-civilized city no doubt brought together a 
curious and motley throng, giving evidence, 
at one and the same time, of a certain social 
development and of the most debased savagery. 
There, along with the materials of a certain bar- 
baric luxury, was the wretched slave, who could 
not know on what day he would look upon the 
sun for the last time, for his master had the 
absolute disposal of his life, and might hand 
him over to the priests for sacrifice, sure of real- 
izing a profitable return from the sale of the poor 
wretch's flesh. 

This debasement of humanity gives us the 
key-note of Mexican society. It was a brutal 
military tyranny. The warrior class ruled every- 

358 



SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 

thing and exercised Its power pitilessly over those 
whom either the fortunes of war or their own 
misconduct had placed at its mercy. For, be- 
sides prisoners taken in battle and members of 
tribes whom the conquering Aztecs had reduced 
to subjection, there were others whom the severe 
laws of the confederacy put in the same miserable 
category. Those, for example, who failed to 
cultivate their plot of ground and those who 
refused to marry, lost their rights in the clan, 
and thus fell into a condition in which they 
could exist only as dependents on others, easily 
sinking into actual slavery. Those who have 
made the most careful research into aboriginal 
society In North America have found practically 
everywhere, from Hudson Bay to Panama, a single 
type of social organization, that which is known 
as the gentile, that Is to say, based on the clan. 
This fact probably is due not so much to identity 
of race as to the well-recognized law that men 
in a similar stage of culture develop similar Ideas. 
The clan organization seems to arise perfectly 
naturally as the most primitive form of social 
bond by which men are united for mutual help 
and defence. Undoubtedly It preceded in the 
Old World the rise of monarchy. In some 

3S9 



APPENDIX 

cases, as in that of Rome, it survived the acces- 
sion of kings as rulers. Therefore, the very fact 
of the clan organization as the characteristic 
American type may serve as an index of the 
degree of advancement which the aborigines had 
obtained. They were still barbarians only. There 
was not a king anywhere. Those whom Euro- 
peans mistakenly called kings were in reality 
either sachems, that is, civil chiefs, concerned with 
the ordinary government of the tribe, or war- 
chiefs. Had Europeans not been deceived by 
their own inherited notions of government, they 
would have seen that the seat of real authority 
was the tribal council. 

Of Indian organization the famous Iroquois 
League is the best-known example, and it is 
deeply interesting to note the close resemblance 
to it of the Aztec League. The foundation 
of it was the clan, by which is meant a group 
of families united by a bond of kinship and 
having a common totem, or symbol, usually 
the figure of some animal, generally believed to 
be the real ancestor of the clan. Each com- 
munal house bore the totem of the clan occu- 
pying it carved on its front, just as one still sees 
the totem of the clan displayed on a post in front 

360 



SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 

of a dwelling of some of the northwest-coast 
tribes. 

The Aztecs numbered twenty clans, each elect- 
ing its own leaders, and subdivided into four 
phratries, each of which occupied a distinct quar- 
ter of the city. Each phratry had its military 
chief and its " dart-house," corresponding to a 
regimental armory in one of our cities, in which 
weapons were stored. The four united phratries 
constituted the tribe. At the head of the tribe 
were two chiefs, one of whom, corresponding to 
the sachem of the northern tribes, was its civil 
magistrate. He bore the grotesque title of 
" snake-woman," from the fact that his official 
emblem was a female head surmounted by a 
snake. The other was the war-chief, who was 
taken commonly from a single family, in which 
that honor was hereditary. But the real au- 
thority was vested in the tribal council, composed 
of twenty speakers, each representing one of the 
twenty clans. Precisely as among the northern 
tribes, such as the Iroquois, nothing of impor- 
tance could be done until it had been fully 
discussed and resolved upon in council. The 
war-chief was merely the executive who carried 
out the behests of the council and was liable to be 

361 



APPENDIX 

deposed by it, as Montezuma was, when his im- 
prisonment by the Spaniards deprived the tribe 
of a leader. Cortes, whose ideas of government 
were derived from European kingship, supposed 
that as long as he held Montezuma in his hands 
the people would be powerless. He learned his 
mistake when, on his exhibiting the captive chief 
in his official robes, with the expectation of thus 
quelling an angry mob, the populace responded 
by reviling and stoning their deposed leader. 

Such was the Aztec organization, a compact 
military body, composed of clans and governed 
by a council in which each clan was represented. 
Nothing could have been simpler, nothing more 
effective. This alone, along with its numerical 
strength — the City of Mexico, at the conquest, 
is supposed to have held sixty thousand people — 
would have made the Aztec tribe mighty. Its 
alliance with the neighboring pueblos of Tezcuco 
and Tlacopan into a close league constituted the 
most formidable power on the American conti- 
nent. In this confederacy the Aztecs were the 
predominant tribe. Its war-chief, therefore, took 
precedence of the other war-chiefs ; which gave 
rise to the Spaniards' mistaken notion that Mon- 
tezuma was an emperor, with kings subject to 

362 



SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 

him. All booty was divided into fifths, of which 
two went to the Aztecs, two to the Tezcucans, 
and one to the Tlacopans. 

These banded, ruthless warriors exercised a 
certain sway over a large territory extending 
across the peninsula, from ocean to ocean. This 
control was exerted, however, not in the way of 
incorporating and ruling other pueblos, but of 
exacting tribute from them. This was taken in 
corn, beans, cotton, and other products of the 
earth, and in manufactured articles. It was gath- 
ered by tax-collectors sent out for the purpose, 
whose authority was enforced by the dread of the 
League's bloody vengeance. On the slightest 
pretext, its ferocious army swooped down on the 
offending pueblo, harried it, butchered its de- 
fenders, and marched away with a long train 
of prisoners bearing the plunder of their own 
ruined homes, the women and children doomed 
to live in slavery, the men to die on the reeking 
altar of Tezcatlipoca. What the Spaniards, and 
after them all the world for generations, called an 
empire, was, in the words of a most able investi- 
gator, Mr. Bandelier, " only a partnership formed 
for the purpose of carrying on the business of 
warfare, and that intended not for the extension 



APPENDIX 

of territorial ownership, but only for an increase 
of the means of subsistence." It was simply a 
system of plunder enforced by terror. The 
Aztec League was a ferocious band of robbers, 
levying blackmail from neighboring pueblos, 
much in the same way as the Iroquois League 
terrorized nearly the whole country between the 
Connecticut and the Mississippi rivers. 

Of the Mexican religion we get the key-note 
in two of its most important elements, snake- 
worship and human sacrifice. It was a develop- 
ment of fetishism, that is, the worship of material 
objects as representing spirits. In this case the 
spirits were supposed to rule the elements and 
various natural forces. The central figure, origi- 
nally, was Quetzalcoatl, the Man of the Sun, who 
had assumed the shape of a bird, descended with 
outspread wings, and resumed human shape, for 
the purpose of instructing mankind in the arts of 
life. He must not be identified with the Sun 
himself, for whom a distinct worship was reserved. 
He was emphatically a man, devoted to the ser- 
vice of his human brethren, building and teaching 
men various industries. Eventually he was be- 
lieved to have gone away, dispossessed, in fact, 
by the dark and bloody Tezcatlipoca, but prom- 

364 



SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 

ising to return, with companions fair like himself, 
and re-establish his mild reign. It will be re- 
membered that the expectation of his coming, 
which bears some faint resemblance to the Messi- 
anic hope of the Jews, exercised a powerful influ- 
ence in determining the reception which the 
Mexicans gave to the Spaniards, whom they were 
at first inclined to regard as visitors from a 
higher world. 

This worship of Quetzalcoatl was the worthiest 
element in the Mexican religion. The best 
opinion about him seems to be that he was a 
" culture-hero," that is, a real man who, at some 
remote time, taught his fellow-men the arts of 
life, and after his death, when his figure had be- 
come enveloped by the mists of tradition, by 
a familiar process became elevated into a god. 
To his mild worship the Toltecs were said to 
have been especially devoted. This legend prob- 
ably indicates that in the earliest age of Mexican 
history, when the Toltecs were the predominant 
race, religion had a more humane character than 
in the succeeding period, when the ferocious 
Aztecs had become the leading people. 

The name Quetzalcoatl, it is said, means Bird- 
Serpent or Feather-Serpent. This fact explains, 

3^5 



APPENDIX 

therefore, the prevalence of the feathered serpent 
in the Mexican carvings. It was his recognized 
symbol. It might be supposed to explain, also, 
the peculiar reverence paid to snakes, if we did 
not know that similar honor was paid to other 
animals. Frogs, for example, on account of their 
association with rain, received worship along with 
the goddess of corn. 

Here we have a clue to the spirit of Mexican 
religion. Essentially, it was an effort to propiti- 
ate the deities who were supposed to control the 
elements and thus to give or to withhold an abun- 
dant food-supply. We have a striking illustration 
of it still existing in our own country in the curi- 
ous snake-dance of the Moquis, of Arizona.^ 
The most intelligent observers are agreed that 
when the snakes used in the ceremony are, at its 
close, distributed in all directions, it is expected 
that they will carry to the under-ground deities, 
believed to control the springs, the people's prayer 
for abundant water ; while earlier portions of the 
rites are an appeal to the gods of the air to send 
frequent showers. We have here a valuable light 
thrown on the Mexican worship of the snake. 

In the Mexican theory, there was a whole 

^ See page 131. 
366 



SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 

world of gods who directed everything that 
affected men, most of all the elements and natural 
forces, therefore the crops. There was supposed 
to be an implied agreement, that so long as the 
people worshiped them and provided for them, 
they would look after and deal kindly with the 
people. For these gods were very human: they 
needed to be fed and were liable to grow old. 
To keep them in health and vigor, the devout 
worshipers supplied them frequently with food. 
Invisible themselves, the gods ate the food invis- 
ibly, but not the less really. Again, they needed 
to be entertained. Therefore the faithful held 
festivals in their honor and danced before them. 
In one ceremony intended to refresh and delight 
the rain-god, who was supposed to be exhausted 
with producing the showers that had watered their 
corn and beans, a pool was filled with frogs and 
harmless water-snakes, and the devout vied with 
each other in catching and eating them alive, 
without the aid of their hands, amid shouts of 
delight. 

Among the numerous festivals of the Mexicans, 
maize being the universal staff of life, the chief 
one of the year was the one held in honor of 
the Maize-mother, at the season when the grain 

3^7 



APPENDIX 

ripened. The elaborate ceremonies, which lasted 
several days, were crowned by the sacrifice of 
a slave-girl, painted to represent corn. Her 
young heart, offered to the deity, was supposed 
to recruit the exhausted vitality of the aged god- 
dess. Until this victim had been slain, had any 
one dared to eat an ear of green corn, the crop 
would have failed to ripen. In a similar way, at 
the great May festival — the one which Alvarado 
seized upon for his slaughter of the Aztecs — a 
young man chosen for his manly vigor and beauty, 
after being feasted and crowned with garlands, 
was escorted by a procession of youths and maid- 
ens to the summit of the great pyramid. Then 
the priest stretched him on the altar-stone, with 
one deep gash laid open his breast, and offered 
the smoking heart to Tezcatlipoca, whose youth 
would be perpetually renewed by such gifts, 
enabling him to be a mighty protector of his 
people. 



368 



INDEX 



24 



INDEX 



AcoMa, a pueblo in New Mexico, visited by Hernando de Alvarado, 
241 ; and by Juan de Oiiate, 306 ; the natives massacre Juan 
de Zaldivar's party, 307 ; captured by the Spaniards under 
Vicente de Zaldivar, 312-318; a mission founded there by 
Fray Juan Ramirez, 319. 

Alarcon, Pedro de, commands the vessels of Coronado's expedi- 
tion, 229 ; discovers the Colorado River, 229. 

Alcalde, a magistrate, 54. 

Altapaha, region in southern Georgia visited by Soto, 271. 

Alvarado, Don Hernando de, leads an expedition through New 
Mexico and stops at Acoma, 241 ; travels along the Rio 
Grande and crosses the Staked Plain, 245 ; recommends the 
villages on the Tiguex for winter quarters, 245. 

Alvarado, Luis Moscoso de, succeeds Soto in command of his 
expedition, 293 ; the Spaniards under his lead escape down the 
Mississippi, 297 ; and reach Mexico, 299. 

Alvarado, Pedro de, goes with Grijalva's expedition to Yucatan, 
133 ; left in command in Mexico by Cortes, 177 ; slaughters the 
Aztecs, 178 ; cominands a division of the Spaniards, 181— 182. 

America, question as to vi'ho first sighted mainland, 26 ; origin of 
name, 37 ; first applied to Brazil, 37, then to South America, 
then to whole Western Hemisphere, 38. 

Apaches, an Indian tribe of the Southwest, loi ; offshoot of the 
Athapascans, 330. 

Apalachee, southern Alabama and Georgia, first visited by Nar- 
vaez, 198 ; by Soto, 270. 

Asia, probably formed one continent with America, 328. 

Athapascans, Indians of British Territory, parent stock of 
Apaches, 330. 



INDEX 

AuTE, an Indian town visited by Naivaez, 199 ; set on fire by the 

inhabitants, 199. 
Ayllon, Lucas Vasquez de, kidnaps natives of Chicora (South 

Carolina), 85 ; their revenge, 86. 
Aztecs, the inhabitants of the city of Mexico, 148 ; superstitious 

dread of Spaniards, 162 ; resist Cortes, 179 5 they defeat him, 

180-1S4.; defeated by him, 1S5 ; conquered, 189 ; their later 

history, 191. See, also, Mexicans, 349. 
Aztec League, 339. 

Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, takes passage for Panama, 49 ; secures 
control in Darien, 54 ; sets out to discover the ocean beyond 
the mountains, 55 ; sees the Pacific, 59 ; crisis in his career, 67 ; 
builds vessels on the Pacific coast, 70 ; treachery of Pedrarias, 
71 ; arrested and executed, 72. 

BiMiNi, island supposed to contain the " Fountain of Perpetual 
Youth," 79. 

Buffalo, first described by Cabeza de Vaca, 213. 

Cannibalism, as a result of lack of food-animals, 349. 
Cardenas, Garcia Lopez de, discovers the Grand Caiion of the 

Colorado, 238 ; slaughters Indians who had surrendered, 247. 
Caries, fierce natives of mainland of South America and some of 

the West India Islands, 106. 
Casas, Bartholomew de las, goes to Hispaniola, 118 ; becomes 

the Indians' friend, 121 ; labors for them, 122 5 what he ac- 

compllslied for them, 125. 
Cathay, early name for the northern province of Cliina, 3. 
Cempoalla, a city of Mexico, visited by Cortes, 153 ; how he 

made its people (Totonacs) his allies, 154 5 he destroys its idols, 

155- 
Central America, massive ruins in, their probable age, 96. 
Chichen Itza, a famous ruined city of Yucatan, not very ancient, 

335- 
Cholula, a city of Mexico, 165 ; massacre of its people by Cortes, 
166 ; the Toltecs take refuge there, 339 ; great pyramid, 354. 



INDEX 

Cibola (Buffalo Country), name given by the Spaniards to the 
region occupied by the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New 
Mexico, 4 ; visited by Friar Marcos, 221-224 ; lomantic inter- 
est, 231 ; tradition of the murder of the "black Mexican," 
234 ; subdued by Coronado, 234, seq. 

CiPANGO, early name for Japan, 3. 

Cliff-dwellings, possibly occupied by Aztecs before reaching 
Mexico, 354. 

CoFACHiQUi, an Indian town, probably on the Savannah River, 
visited by Soto, 272. 

Columbus, Diego, son of Christopher, governor of Hispaniola, 19. 

COMPOSTELLA, town in Mexico from which Coronado's expedition 
started, 229. 

Cordova, Hernandez de, lands on the peninsula of Yucatan, 129 ; 
brings back gold ornaments and stimulates desire to conquer 
the country, 131. 

Corn-goddess, honored bv the Mexicans with the sacrifice of a 
young woman, 367. 

Coronado, Francisco Vasouez de, leads an expedition to discover 
and conquer the " Seven Cities," 227-228 ; enters southeastern 
Arizona, 231 ; captures the "Seven Cities," 235; explores 
neighboring country, 238 5 takes up winter quarters on the Rio 
Grande, 245 ; trouble with the Tiguas, 246 ; goes in search of 
Quivira, 249 ; reaches Quivira, 252 ; return of the expedition to 
Mexico, and his death, 253. 

Cortes, Hernando, goes to Hispaniola, 134 5 appointed to lead an 
expedition to Mexico, 136 ; expedition sails, 137 ; begins the 
conquest of Mexico, 138 ; establishes a colony, 153 ; makes 
allies of the people of Totonac, 154 ; founds a city and destroys 
his ships, 156 ; marches on the city of Mexico, 159 ; attacks 
the Tlascalans, 163 j enters the city of Mexico, 168 ; defeats 
Narvaez, 177 ; retreats from the city, 180 ; defeated by the 
Aztecs, 180-184; victory at Otumba, 185 ; besieges Mexico, 
188 ; captures the city, 189 ; treated with coldness, 190 ; his 
death, 191. 

373 



INDEX 

CosA, Juan de la, accompanies Ojeda to the coast of Paria, 7 ; goes 
with him on his second expedition, 12 ; is killed by natives, 14. 

CozuMEL, island off the coast of Yucatan, where Cortes made his 
first landing, 140 ; he destroys idols there, 140. 

Curasao, an island of the West Indies, visited by Ojeda and 
Vespucci, 9. 

Darien, colony planted by Enciso, 52 ; becomes headquarters of 
the Spaniards, 53 ; Balboa assumes control, 54. 

Darkness, Sea of, early name of the Atlantic Ocean, 3. 

Diaz, Porfirio, a commander of the modern Mexican army and 
President of the Republic of Mexico, 191. 

Domestic animals, almost unknown to Mexicans, 340 ; their 
lack tended to produce cannibalism, 349. 

El dorado, see Gilded Man. 

Enchanted mesa, the, a flat-topped rock near Acoma, 241 ; In- 
dians' legend about it, 243 ; recent discoveries on its top, 244. 

Enciso, Martin Fernandez de, becomes Ojeda's partner in his 
colony, 12 ; carries Balboa to Darien, 49 ; his reverses, 50 ; 
returns to Spain, 54. 

Encomiendas, system of Indian slavery, 113. 

Estevanico, a negro, one of the survivors of Narvaez's expedition, 
207 ; escapes from slavery, 209 ; readies the western coast of 
Mexico, 214 ; is sent by Mendoza to report on country Cabeza 
de Vaca had visited, 221 ; his death in Cibola, 222. 

Feathered Serpent, symbol of Quetzalcoatl, a Mexican deity, 
365 ; found in some of the mounds of the Ohio Valley, 356. 

Floating gardens of Mexico, 354. 

Florida, discovered by some unknown explorer, 81 ; re-discovered 
by Ponce de Leon, 81 ; name at first applied to the whole 
eastern portion of North America, 195 ; Narvaez leads an ex- 
pedition to conquer it, 195 ; Soto leads an expedition to conquer 
it, 260. 

374 



INDEX 

Gilded Man (El Dorado), ruler of a mythical country abound- 
ing in gold, 258 ; Soto leads an expedition to seek this country, 
260. 

Grijalva, Juan de, leads an expedition to Yucatan, 131 ; explores 
the coast of Mexico and returns with rich treasures, 133. 

GuATEMOTZiN, Aztec war-chief, 187 ; bravely resists Cortes, 187- 
189 ; surrenders to him, 189 ; tortured and hanged by him, 
190. 

Haidah, a tribe of British Columbia, evidently akin to the Mexi- 
cans, 329. 

Hakimah, Pueblo of the Zuiii, visited by Coronado, captured by 
the Spaniards, 235. 

Hispaniola, early Spanish name given to island of Hayti or San 
Domingo, 10 ; Ojeda ordered off from it, 10. 

Indians, origin of name, 91 ; probable birthplace of race, 92, 328 ; 
unity of race, 95 ; not any tribe civilized, 99 ; how classified, 
99 ; numerous languages among them, 103 ; characteristics of 
the inhabitants of the West Indies, 104 ; treated with atrocious 
cruelty by the Spaniards, 107 ; befriended by Las Ca^as, 11 8. 

Izamal, a famous ruined city of Yucatan, not very ancient, 335. 

Juarez, Benito, a famous president of tiie modern Republic of 
Mexico, a descendant of the Aztecs, 191. 

Leon, Juan Ponce de, conquers Porto Rico, 78 ; governor of 
Porto Rico, 78 5 seeks the Fountain of Youth, 80; re-discovers 
Florida, 81 ; sails to conquer Florida, his death, 84. 

Lucayans, natives of the Bahamas; 40,000 of them carried off 
into slavery by the Spaniards, 116. 

Macaulay, Lord, his strictures on ancient Mexican culture, 345. 
Maldonado, Alonzo de, an officer under Soto, discovers Pensa- 
cola Bay, 270. 

375 



INDEX 

Marcos, of Nizza, a friar sent to report on the country Cabeza de 
Vaca had visited, 221 ,• views the "City of Cibola " and 
reports favorably, 223-224; accompanies Coronado's expedi- 
tion, 229 ; resentment against him, 230. 

Marina (Malintzi), an Indian woman, accompanies the Spaniards 
in Mexico, 147; exposes plot of Cholulans, 165; her fate, 
190. 

Maundeville, Sir John, his story of a river in Asia whose water 
healed the sick and renewed youth, 79. 

Mauvila, an Indian town of southern Alabama, where Soto had 
a disastrous battle with the natives, 275. 

Mayas, natives of Yucatan, probably reared the great buildings 
whose ruins are found there, 96 ; probably of same stock as 
Aztecs, 332 ; naturally a literary people, 3335 their cities not 
ancient, 335. 

Mendoza, successor of Cortes as governor of Mexico, 191 ; sends 
scouts to explore country Cabeza de Vaca had visited, 221. 

Metals, limited knowledge of them a great drawback to Mexi- 
cans, 356. 

Mexicans, probable origin, 328 ; evident connection with tribes 
of northwest coast, 329 ; development based on agriculture, 
335 ; had no real civilization, 139 ; progress in certain arts, 
350, 351, 354; cannibals from force of circumstances, 349 ; 
picture-writing, 357 5 system of barter, 358 ; social organiza- 
tion, 359 ; Aztec League, 360 ; religion, 364 ; fetish-worship, 
366 ; human sacrifices, 367. 

Mexico, city of, chief city of the Aztec League, 148 ; Cortes, 
first European visitor, 167 ; defence by Aztecs, 179 ; fall of 
the city, 189. 

Mexico, Old, first visited by Cordova, 129 ; next by Grijalva, 
131 ; no true civilization there, 138 ; its real social status, 139 ; 
buildings compared with those of Zuiii and Moqui, 140 ; in- 
vaded and conquered by Cortes, 147, seq. 

Mississippi River, discovered by Alvarez de Pineda, 203 ; its 
mouth crossed by Narvaez, 203 ; crossed by Soto, 289. 



INDEX 

MONTKZUMA, war-chief of the Aztecs, 148 ; his treatment of the 

Spaniards, 148 ; reception of Cortes, 168 ; becomes his prisoner, 

176 ; his death, 180. 
Moors, effect of the long contest with them upon the national 

character of the Spaniards, 117. 
Mogul (Hopi), a group of villages of Pueblo Indians in Arizona, 

238 ; great communal buildings, 140 5 mode of living, 231 ; 

visited by Don Pedro de Tobar, 238. 
Mounds, of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, by whom probably 

built, 96 ; builders of some were connected with the Mexicans, 

356. 

Narvaez, Panfilo de, is sent by the governor of Cuba to arrest 
Cortes, 177 ; defeated by him, 177 ; released by Cortes and 
returns to Spain, 195 ; sails to conquer Florida, lands prob- 
ably at Tampa Bay, 196 ; starts inland, 196 ; reaches the 
ocean at Apalachee Bay, 19S ; builds boats, 200 ; off" the 
mouth of the Mississippi, 203 ; shipwrecked, 206 ; fate of 
expedition, 206. 

New Spain, early Spanish name for Mexico, 224. 

NicuESA, Diego de, appointed to govern Panama, 1 1 ; rescues 
Ojeda, 14 ; terrible experiences, 51 ; establishes a colony, 51 ; 
trouble with colonists, 53 5 embarks for Spain, his fate un- 
known, 54. 

NOCHE Triste (Dreadful Night), night of Cortes' retreat from 
the city of Mexico, 180. 

Nombre de Dios, first town founded by white men on American 
continent, 51. 

OjEDA, Alonzo de, accompanies Columbus on his second voyage, 
6 ; leads an expedition to the coast of Paria, 7 ; appointed, 
with Nicuesa, governor of Panama, 1 1 5 quarrels with Nicuesa, 
12 ; attacks the natives, 13 5 rescued by Nicuesa, 14 ; establishes 
San Sebastian, 15 ; starts for San Domingo, 16 ; wrecked on the 
coast of Cuba, 1 7 ; severe experiences in Cuba, 1 8 j his death, 1 9. 

377 



INDEX 

ORate, Juan de, leads an expedition into New Mexico, 305 ; 
founds Santa Fe, 306 j visits Acoma, 306 ; sends a successful 
expedition against Acoma, 312. 

Ordaz, Diego de, commands infantry under Cortes, 143. 

Ortiz, Juan, survivor of Narvaez's expedition, found by Soto, 
262 ; goes with him as guide and interpreter, 262. 

OviEDO, Lope, goes with Narvaez's expedition to Florida and 
becomes a slave of the Indians, 207 ; attempts flight but re- 
turns to his masters, his fate unknown, 208. 

Pacific Ocean, discovered by Vasco Nuiiez de Balboa, named by 

Magellan, 59. 
Padre, a Roman Catholic priest, 319 ; work of the padres in the 

Southwest, 320, seq. 
Palms, River of (Rio Grande), visited by Hernando de Alva- 

rado, 245 ; Coronado winters near it, 245. 
Panama, called Veragua, 11 ; its first governors, Ojeda and 

Nicuesa, 1 1. 
Panuco, harbor on the coast of Mexico, 196 ; Narvaez sends his 

vessels there to await him, 196. 
Paria, part of Venezuela north of the mouths of Orinoco Rive", 

visited by Columbus, 6 5 later by Ojeda and Vespucci, 7. 
Pearl Islands, in the Pacific, visited by Balboa, 62. 
Pedrarias, appointed governor of Darien, 65 ; his treatment of 

Balboa, 66 ; mismanages affairs of colony, 67 5 reconciliation 

with Balboa, 69 ; arrests and executes Balboa, 71. 
Picture-writing among the Aztecs, 148 5 illustrated, 357. 
PiZARRO, Francisco, left by Ojeda in command at San Sebastian, 

16 ; with Morales, leads an expedition to the Pearl Islands, 67 5 

their desperate straits, and return to Darien^ 67 ; sent to arrest 

Balboa, 71. 

Quetzalcoatl, the fair god of the Aztecs, god of light, 160 : his 
symbol, a feathered serpent, 364; found in some of the Ohio 
Valley mounds, 356 ; probably, a culture-hero, 364. 

Quivira, land of gold which Coronado seeks, 252. 



INDEX 

Repartimientos (allotments), system of Indian slavery, 112. 

Serpent-symbol, see Feathered Serpent. 

Seven Cities, legend of; supposed to be in the country Cabeza 
de Vaca had visited, 220 ; Coionado leads an expedition to 
discover and conquer them, 224 ; submit to Coronado, 236. 

Seven Spanish bishops, legend of, 220. 

Slavery, its history in modern times, 108 ; Prince Henry the Nav- 
igator one of its promoters, 108 ; in what form introduced 
among the natives of the West Indies, 112, 113. 

Small-pox, its first appearance on the American continent ; it 
proves a help to Cortes, 187. 

Soto, Diego de, a nephew of Hernando de Soto, is killed while 
fighting the Choctaw Indians, 278. 

Soto, Hernando de, is appointed governor of Florida, 260 ; ex- 
pedition sails from Seville, attacked by the natives of Florida, 
261 ; establishes a garrison at Tampa and starts inland, 262 ; 
experiences of the march through Florida and Georgia, 263 ; 
meets with a severe reverse at the Choctaw town of Mauvila, 
275 ; attacked by the Chickasaw Indians, 281 ; captures another 
Chickasaw town, 283 ; reaches the Mississippi River, 289 ; 
crosses the river and marches westward, 290 5 returns to the 
Mississippi, 291 5 sickens and dies, 293 5 his burial, 295 ; 
effects of his death on the expedition, 296. 

South Sea, name by which Pacific Ocean was known before 
Magellan named it, 59. 

Tabasco River, region of, in Yucatan, 141 ; natives receive Gri- 
jalva kindly, 141 ; resist Cortes fiercely, 141, seq. 

Tampa Bay, on Gulf coast of Florida, probable landing-place of 
Narvaez, 196 5 of Soto, 262. 

Tenochtitlan, Aztec name of the city of Mexico, 148 ; its mar- 
kets, temples, and defences, 172. 

Teocalli, sacred pyramid, 181; slaughter of Spanish prisoners on. 



379 



INDEX 

Tezcatlipoca, a god of the Aztecs to whom human beings were 
offered, i6o ; dispossessed Quetzalcoatl, the god of light, 364 ; 
feast in his honor, 368. 

Tezcuco, a city near Mexico belonging to the Aztec League, 
187 ; it betrays the League and assists Cortes, 187. 

TiERRA Caliente, hot coast-region of Mexico, 151. 

TiGUEX, Indian village on the Tigiiex (Rio Grande), 245 ; natives 
resist the Spaniards under Coronado, 247 ; defeated, 247 ; 
winter quarters of the Spaniards, 248. 

Tlacopan, a city of Mexico, member of Aztec League, 362. 

Tlascala, a country of Mexico whose people resist the Spaniards, 
163 ; then become allies, 165. 

ToBAR, Don Pedro de, is sent to explore Tusayan in Arizona, 
238 ; visits the Moqui and returns to Coronado, 238. 

Toltecs, probably of kindred stock with the Aztecs, 331 ; re- 
nowned as builders, 338 ; their religion more humane than that 
of Aztecs, 338 ; probably merged in Aztecs, 332. 

TORTUGAS (Turtles), islands discovered and named by Ponce de 
Leon, 82. 

Tusayan, region of northeastern Arizona, home of the Moqui, 
238 ; visited by Don Pedro de Tobar, 238. 

Tuscaloosa, a brave Choctaw chief who resists Soto, 275. 

Vaca, Cabeza de, goes with Narvaez's expedition to Florida as 
treasurer, 206 ; becomes slave of the Indians, 208 ; escapes from 
his captors, 209 ; sudden change in his fortunes, 2105 reaches 
Mexico, 214; influence of his story upon the Spaniards, 214. 

Velasquez, governor of Cuba, 134 ; makes Cortes commander of 
expedition to Mexico, 136 5 tries to stop Cortes from sailing, 
137. 

Velasquez, Juan, commands a division under Cortes, 181. 

Venezuela (Little Venice), name given by Ojeda to a village 
built on piles, 9 ; afterwards extended to the whole adjacent 
region, 10. 

Vera Cruz, a city of Mexico, founded by Cortes, 155. 

380 



INDEX 

Vespucci, Amerigo, associate of Ojeda on his expedition to coast 
of Paria, 7 ; appointed Pilot Major of Spain, 25 ; question as to 
who first sighted mainland of America, 26 5 his account of his 
voyage in 1501, 31 ; controversy about him, 36 ; how his name 
was bestowed on the Western Hemisphere, 37. 

ViLLAGRAN, Gaspar Perez de, nialces a daring leap and saves 
his countrymen, 315. 

Yucatan, peninsula of, visited by Cordova, 129 ; massive ruins, 
130 j these not very ancient, 335. 

Zaldivar, Juan de, an officer of Juan de Onate, 305 ; visits 

Acoma, 305 ; is killed by the natives, 307. 
Zaldivar, Vicente de, leads a party to attack Acoma, 312 j 

storms the town, 313 ; captures it, 315. 
Zu5ji, a village of Pueblo Indians in New Mexico, 232 ; great 

communal buildings, 232 j mode of living, 232 ; submits to 

the Spaniards, 236. 



38i 



The IVorWs Discoverers 

The Story of Bold Voyages by Brave Navigators during a 
Thousand Years. By WILLIAM HENRY JOHNSON, author 
of "The King's Henchman," etc. With numerous illustrations 
and maps. i2mo. $1.50. 




COLUMBUS AT HISPANIOLA 



THIS is a book which will interest both young and old. It describes the 
voyages of Marco Polo, Magellan, Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Drake, Sir 
John Franklin, Nordenskiold, etc., and shows what desperate suffering has been 
endured by men whose one thought was to bring back to their own nation know- 
ledge of a new and undiscovered world. 



LITTLE, BROWN, ^ CO., Publishers, Boston 



THE WORLD'S DISCOVERERS 



THIS is believed to be the only 
book giving, as a whole, a 
connected account of the search for 
a route to the Indies. The scope 
thus includes voyages made by Marco 
Polo, Bartholomew Diaz, Columbus, 
Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Verra- 
zano, Frobisher, John Davis, Fran- 
cis Drake, William Barentz, Henry 
Hudson, Sir John Franklin, Norden- 
skiold, and many others. The author 
has sketched the story of exploration 
from King Alfred's time down to its -<?^ 

final triumph in our own. g^i^ YV' i ; ,i rich 

" The World's Discoverers," has been adopted for use 
as supplementary reading in the grammar schools of 
Boston. 




PRESS 



NOTICES 



Mr. Johnson is as keenly alive to the picturesque and stirring features 
of those historic voyages as he is to the need of accuracy in dealing with 
them. . . . Has rapid movement, clearness, and picturesqueness that will 
make his book as interesting to their elders as to the young people. — 
Neiv York Tribune. 

The author takes much pains to persuade his young readers to exam- 
ine his sources of information for themselves, giving lists of books read 
and an occasional picture. . . . The dignified although simple style, 
and the exclusion of all extraneous matter especially adapt this volume 
for school libraries, and its good pictures further qualify it for admission 
there. — Boston Transcript. 

A book of captivating interest. — Chicago Evening Post. 

The chapters devoted to the story of Columbus are particularly good ; 
in fact too much cannot be said in praise of Mr. Johnson's treatment of 
his subject. His style is clear, concise, and pleasing. — Evening Wis- 
consin, Milwaukee. 

The style is easy and pleasant, and not condescending, and curious 
maps, old pictures, and portraits furnish the illustrations. — American 
Ecclesiastical Revie-w. 



STUART SCHUYLER SERIES OF 

Stories of the Revolution 

By JOHN PRESTON TRUE 

Author of "The Iron Star," etc. 

SCOUTING FOR WASHINGTON 

A Story of the days of Sumter and Tarleton 
Illustrated by Clyde O. De Land. i2mo. Cloth. $1.50 

" Scouting for Washington " is one of tlie most satisfactory of the historical 
stories written especially for young readers. It has no false sentiment, no 
exaggerated adventures, although it is spirited in action and strong in patriotic 
feeling. — Boston Transcript. 



MORGAN'S MEN 

Containing adventures of Stuart 
Schuyler, Captain of Cavalry dur- 
ing the Revolution. Illustrated by 
Lilian Crawford True. lamo. 
Cloth. $1.50 

Both imaginary and historical personages stand 
out clearly, and the boys who read the book will 
know a good deal more about the men who led 
the armies of the Revolution than they are likely 
to find out from any other single book or any 
probable course of reading. — Congregationalht, 
Boston. 




AGAINST TORY AND 



ON GUARD! 
TARLETON 

Further adventures of Stuart Schuyler, Major of Cav- 
alry during the Revolution. Illustrated by Lilian 
Crawford True. i2mo. Decorated cloth. $1.20 net 

The book will make clear to the young reader much of the history of the 
revolution in the southern colonies and give him a lasting picture of its close with 
the surrender of Cornwallis. — Clei'eland World. 



LITTLE, BROWN, c^- COMPANY, Publishers 

254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 



H) 



THE STRUGGLE 
for A CONTINENT 



Edited from the writings of FRANCIS PARKMAN 
£y PELHAM EDGAR, Professor in the French Language and 
Literature, Victoria College, University of Toronto, sometime 
Scholar and Fellozv in English in the Johns Hopkins University. 



PROFESSOR EDGAR has drawn from Park- 
man's histories a volume which gives a continuous 
account of the struggle for the possession of the 
American continent, beginning with the colonization 
of Florida by the Huguenots in 1562, and culminat- 
ing in the fall of Quebec in 1759. 

With the aid of connecting notes he has presented 
in the historian s own language a series of brilliant and 
absorbing historical pictures, whose scenes are laid in 
Florida, in Massachusetts, in the great West, and in 
Canada, the whole forming a continuous story of the 
conflict between England and France for the mastery 
of the New World. 

The volume includes 540 pages, with maps, portraits 
of historical personages, and other illustrations. As an 
historical narrative, it cannot fail to be helpful to the 
student and teacher. For those who are not already 
familiar with Parkman's fascinating histories, it will 
serve as a valuable guide to the treasures which may 
be found in the works of America's greatest historian. 

i2mo. Decorated cloth. $1.50 net. 



LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., Publishers 

254 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MASS, 

-1 ^'J-:-i 



